9 - Southern Baths palaestra

The first public baths of Conimbriga were built during the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 BC-14 AD), as part of an ambitious modernization program for the city, which also included the construction of the forum, the aqueduct, and the first city wall. The architectural remains of this first phase of the baths are difficult to identify, and those preserved are under the foundations of the majestic thermal building, whose construction began in the last quarter of the 1st century AD, possibly as a result of Conimbriga's promotion to the status of a municipality, which was only completed during the reign of Trajan (98-117 AD). One of the main spaces of this grand architectural complex was the palaestra, a large open-air space characterized by monumental architecture, where users could exercise, converse, or simply enjoy the view of the other bank of the Rio dos Mouros. An architectural intervention, carried out about two decades ago in this area of the building, aimed to reconstruct the original circulation levels and, at the same time, protect the adobe structures that constitute a unique example of Iron Age architecture (4th century BC - 1st century BC) discovered so far in Conimbriga.