Present Day
Many of the rooms have been preserved because various parts later were converted to ecclesiastical or other use, including:
- Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (in the frigidarium), whose three soaring transept vaults provide one of the few glimpses of the original splendor of Roman building
- the church of San Bernardo alle Terme (in one of the two circular rooms)
- in the main hall, part of the Museo Nazionale Romano (National Roman Museum)
- the 'octagonal aula', also now part of the National Roman Museum.
Other remains of the baths are visible several streets away.
The church of San Bernardo alle Terme recycled one of only two circular towers in the rectangular boundary of the baths, flanking its southwestern wall. Between these two towers, one large exedra used to exist as part of the same wall. Today, only its outline may be appreciated in the layout of Piazza della Repubblica.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History building in Washington, D.C. was partially based on design elements from the Baths of Diocletian, including the semicircular windows.
Read more about this topic: Baths Of Diocletian
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or day:
“We do not rest satisfied with the present.... So imprudent we are that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“What a hundred years is not enough to build, one day is more than enough to destroy.”
—Chinese proverb.