The public thermal bath complexes are one of the most significant achievements of Roman architecture.
After finding the hypocaust (hypocaustum), a particular construction assembly for heating rooms and swimming pools, a classic type of thermal baths were built that consisted of a room with a moderate temperature (tepidarium), rooms for bathing in warm water (caldarium), a swimming pool with cold water (frigidarium), a locker room (apoditerium) and a sweat-room (sudatorium), etc.
Besides its primary purpose as a bathing complex, these facilities were also the center of an intensive social and cultural life: Business meetings, organized exhibitions of paintings, poetry recitals and other such things were held at the thermae.
In ancient Issae, the thermae could be found in the coastal part of the town, close to today’s service station. They were built in the 1st century AD.
