Roman Thermae of Odessos
Ruins of the largest Roman public baths in Bulgaria, standing in the old quarter of Varna.
The thermae served Odessos, the Greek colony founded on this coast around 570 BC that became a busy Roman provincial city. Raised at the end of the second century AD, the complex covered more than 7,000 square metres and was the largest public building of the Roman period yet found in Bulgaria, and the fourth largest bath complex known in Europe. Bilingual Greek and Latin inscriptions unearthed in 1851 record the aqueduct that supplied it, built under Antoninus Pius.
Excavations between 1959 and 1971 exposed the main plan, although parts still lie beneath the modern streets around it. Visitors can follow the sequence of changing rooms, cold, warm and hot halls, and see the brick pillars of the hypocaust that carried heated air beneath the floors. Sections of wall survive to considerable height, and the ruin is used in summer for open-air performances. The smaller southern thermae of the fourth to sixth centuries stand nearby.
Highlights
- Largest Roman public building yet excavated in Bulgaria
- Hypocaust pillars and the surviving heating system
- Walls standing many metres high above the old quarter
- Aqueduct inscriptions dating construction to the 2nd century
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