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The huge thermal complex housed a central building with
calidarium, tepidarium and natatio (rooms for hot or
warm baths and swimming pools filled with cold water,
partly preserved) disposed along the short axis, and
gymnasiums on both sides of the long axis, with a large
court all around used as garden.
Inside the complex there were open exedras (perhaps
used for conference rooms and public readings), wide
rectangular rooms (libraries) and circular rooms at
the west and south corners, transformed later into the
church of S. Bernardo alle Terme and into a restaurant
with an arena.
Today's Piazza della Repubblica traces
the line of the large exedra of the Baths,in front of
which there were calidarium, tepidarium and " basilica
" transformed later by Michelangelo (1563-66) into
the church of S. Maria degli Angeli.
Redesigned by Vanvitelli (1749), it is the church used
for official religious services. Noteworthy mostly for
its huge proportions, and for its eight colossal monolithic
columns in red granite (13.80mt. high), belonging originally
to the Baths. The name "Termini", given to
the central railway station, reminds deformed, the memory
of the "terme"(baths)
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