Official Information
Official website: https://museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it/terme-di-diocleziano/
Online tickets: https://portale.museiitaliani.it/b2c/buyTicketless/3554d4d2-5596-4cca-8b4e-00e00978fda2
Address: Viale Enrico de Nicola 78, 00185 Roma RM, Italy
Map: View on Google Maps
Opening Hours
Museum-wide hours: Tuesday to Sunday 09:30 to 19:00, last admission at 18:00. Closed on Mondays. Some areas of the complex, such as the Natatio or specific galleries, may be temporarily closed; check official notices on the museum site before visiting.
The Terme di Diocleziano complex, now part of the Museo Nazionale Romano, occupies what were once the largest imperial baths in Rome. Built at the end of the third century AD under emperors Diocletian and Maximian, the baths originally covered a vast area between what is today Piazza della Repubblica and Termini railway station. In the sixteenth century Michelangelo incorporated some of the ruined halls into the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri and its cloister, giving the site a second life in the Christian and early modern city.
The present museum circuit includes open-air courtyards, monumental halls and more intimate galleries. Visitors can walk through surviving spaces of the baths with their massive brick and concrete walls, vaults and traces of ancient decoration, gaining a sense of the scale of Roman public bathing culture. Around and within these structures the museum presents several core collections: inscriptions in the epigraphic section, protohistoric collections tracing Latin development, and sculptures, reliefs and altars from different parts of the city. The large Michelangelo cloister, with its orange trees and surrounding portico, is a highlight and offers a contemplative pause in the middle of the visit.
Because the baths are partly outdoors and partly adapted interiors, the experience changes with the seasons; on bright days the interplay between ruins and sky is especially striking. Tickets can be purchased for a single site or as part of a combined pass valid for several National Roman Museum venues, a useful option for archaeology enthusiasts. The official website offers up-to-date maps, accessibility details and information about current restorations, which is important as some sections or the natatio may be closed during work. For those interested in the engineering and social aspects of ancient Rome, the Terme di Diocleziano offers one of the best contexts to imagine a gigantic imperial bath complex in use.