In Genève-Sécheron, between the Palais des Nations and Lac Léman, baths belonging to a villa were excavated in 1926 by Louis Blondel. The pottery from the building indicates that it was used from the middle of the first until the middle of the fourth century. Modifications have been dated to the late third century.
Plan of the baths. Blondel 1927, Fig. 1.The excavated part measured 14.20 x 10.50 m. The baths were entered from vestibule 1. Room 2 had a white mosaic floor. Room 3 must have contained a basin. In room 4 a hypocaust was found, so it was heated (caldarium). Room 5 may have been a sweating room (laconicum), room 7 a lukewarm room (tepidarium). Room 8 has been identified as a cold room (frigidarium), with a basin. The rooms in this part of the building had white mosaic floors. In several places the excavators encountered remains of stucco reliefs, of paintings, of polychrome mosaics, and of marble revetment of floors and walls.
Drawings of paintings (left) and stucco reliefs (right). Blondel 1927, Figs. 5-6.
The ceiling of room 11, which Blondel called a gallery, was covered with blue and white stucco. On the walls were panels with a white background, with stylised green and black foliage, and white motifs on a dark-red background. A bust was preserved of a person in profile, his hair held by a red ribbon, his shoulders covered by a blue-green mantle with folds.
Painting of a bust. Photo: Blondel 1927, Fig. 7.
Literature
Blondel 1927; Drack 1950, 80; Von Gonzenbach 1961, 111-112; Drack-Fellmann 1988, 406.
[24-Nov-2023]
