Therma Rotunda - Italy - July '23

[UrbanX]

Preface:

So looking at sites in Italy we realised we’d need 7 days to make the trip worthwhile. Knowing I could only commit to 3-4 days due to job / kids etc. I waved them off, saying I’d see them in a few days.

Their route was fairly fluid, so by the time I was a few drinks deep in Stansted Wetherspoons I still didn’t really know where I was going.

I landed in Milan, and started chased them across the country in a 300Km/h bullet train.

Priority 7’s directions are legendary. His pins are coordinated down to the access window. So I was surprised when I arrived in Florence, 12.5 hours after setting off, that his definition of “The hotel is in Florence” was over an hour outside… A quick stagger to another platform, another hour on a train and another stagger across a rural town… I found them.

Early the next day we drove the 5 mins to our first explore…

The Explore:

No real history on this one, but a few educated assumptions:

It’s in a spa town. It’s all you see driving about, so we knew it’s be spa-esque. A wait for the traffic to break, and we all squeezed our bags and ourselves through a small hole like clockwork.

Stumbling through the woods in 37 degree heat, getting bitten to buggery. We cross bridges, and find a headless statue. We guess at who it was. We cant agree on Thatcher or Putin.

Eventually we stumble across the first building:

Amazingly I could hear rushing water and went to investigate. Whatever well / spring this was part of was very much still active.

I love that carved into the stone was the stats of the water, including its radioactivity!

The ceilings were gorgeous. Some tiles had dropped through and were being reclaimed by nature, and some were lovingly stockpiled, waiting to be restored.

The architecture here hits differently.

I knew the next three days of solid urbexing were going to be good…

 

[BikinGlynn]

Thats a typically stunning bit of Italian architecture, brilliant pics

 

[Hayman]

The contradictions in this place need explaining. The photo of the diuretic water source - a well? a spring? - shows such contrasts. Carved stone (cast concrete?) that could be thousands of years old, but with a curved plate glass cover. And the references to temperature in degrees Celsius and radioactivity (no units) are very 20th century. "portata litro 7.50" means what? The rate of flow per minute? The cast iron barrier and gates are very Victorian, as is the glasswork. But then there are steel shutters closing off something. And that grafitto on the wall behind the decaying seat reminds me of World War II humourist Chad's "What no ...?" cartoons. A very intriguing site. Who is in the
process of doing it up?

 

[UrbanX]

The contradictions in this place need explaining. The photo of the diuretic water source - a well? a spring? - shows such contrasts. Carved stone (cast concrete?) that could be thousands of years old, but with a curved plate glass cover. And the references to temperature in degrees Celsius and radioactivity (no units) are very 20th century. "portata litro 7.50" means what? The rate of flow per minute? The cast iron barrier and gates are very Victorian, as is the glasswork. But then there are steel shutters closing off something. And that grafitto on the wall behind the decaying seat reminds me of World War II humourist Chad's "What no ...?" cartoons. A very intriguing site. Who is in the
process of doing it up?

Cheers. No idea! It didn't seem actively under refurb, more like something that was started (pre-covid?) and not continued. There weren't any signs of fresh work activity, it was all very overgrown.

I too assumed it was rate per minute.

It's not really famed for it's radioactivity nowadays, but I found this article which referenced Marie Curie visitng the area in 1918 when radioactive waters, (from the natural radon in the ground) were seen as a positive:

"A handsome plaque commemorates the visit, in August 1918, of the Nobel laureate Marie Curie, who "measured the radioactivity of the waters." The results of her measuring are not vouchsafed, but in 1918 radioactivity was generally considered a good thing."

 

[gigi]

Really lovely chap! So much to see there! My fave bit was the staircase, lovely pic you got!

 

[Hayman]

Cheers. No idea! It didn't seem actively under refurb, more like something that was started (pre-covid?) and not continued. There weren't any signs of fresh work activity, it was all very overgrown.

I too assumed it was rate per minute.

It's not really famed for it's radioactivity nowadays, but I found this article which referenced Marie Curie visitng the area in 1918 when radioactive waters, (from the natural radon in the ground) were seen as a positive:

"A handsome plaque commemorates the visit, in August 1918, of the Nobel laureate Marie Curie, who "measured the radioactivity of the waters." The results of her measuring are not vouchsafed, but in 1918 radioactivity was generally considered a good thing."

Thanks for your response. Whoever constructed it would have needed loadsamoney - judging by the architecture, perhaps an architect or property
developer, or an industrialist.

Yes, knowing what we do now about them, the ways radioactive materials have been used have been so irrational. Drinking or bathing in radioactive water - so good for one's health! - and radioactive toothpaste, hair cream, cosmetics and even suppositories.

Perhaps the level is in millisieverts or roentgens. Over 20 years ago I had an overactive thyrioid gland, and took a radioactive radium drink to reduce it. In hospital, I hasten to add! Perhaps I could have come here for treatment.

In areas where granite is the main underlying rock, radon gas is given off. Maybe bathing in pools nearby is not advisable.