Scholastikia Baths (Ephesus)

The Scholastikia Baths, also Varius Bath, were a public bathing facility (thermae) in Ephesus in the western part of present-day Turkey. They were built in the first half of the 2nd century AD.

The baths built by Publius Quintilius Valens Varius and originally named after him lie, separated only by the Hadrian Temple, on the Kureten Street, one of the main grand avenues of Ephesus. Of the once three‑storey building, one of the largest of Ephesus, only remains of the ground floor have survived. Access was through the main entrance on Kureten Street; in the east one could also reach the side entrance via a staircase into the bath alley. Both routes led to the apodyterium, an L‑shaped hall with ten niches and an apse, from which one could presumably look onto Kureten Street. Inside this room stood numerous statues. Today one finds only in a niche to the left of the side entrance the headless standing statue of Scholastikia, a wealthy Christian citizen of Ephesus who in the 4th century donated parts of her fortune for the renovation of the baths, which is why they bear her name to this day.

From the changing room one reached a public toilet via the originally covered Academy Alley. In the middle was a square basin, at whose four corners each a column stood. The toilets themselves, under which a channel with flowing water disposed of the waste, were covered. In front of the seat a circulating gutter with clear water ran in the floor, which could be used for cleaning.

West of the apodyterium lay the frigidarium with an elliptical cold pool, and on the north side the tepidarium for warming up. The clay tubes that were built into the floor and walls provided the necessary hot‑air circulation here. In one corner of the room a small remnant of the original floor covering of coloured marble has been preserved, the remaining floor dates from around 400.

A narrow door leads from the tepidarium into the caldarium. Here the walls are still preserved at their original height, but the wall claddings come from different periods. Beneath the floor of this room was the heating boiler that supplied the whole complex with warm water and hot air. The associated hypocaust is well preserved.