From private house to public bath

Archaeological research on the site of the planned new National and University Library (NUK II) has been ongoing since the early 1990s. Following extensive excavations between 1996 and 1999 and supplementary research in 2008, archaeologists excavated the last part of the site, which was inaccessible until then, between October 2024 and April 2025. This 520 m² area was located within the walls of the former Roman city of Emona, close to the eastern gate of the city. It comprised the central parts of Islas XXVII and XLVI and the road between them, which crossed the city on the Siscia-Acquileia route.

The military camp before the construction of Emona and the building of the city
The oldest traces indicate that the area was used by the Roman army before the foundation of Emona, which set up camp on the site, as indicated by the remains of a defensive ditch and hearths and pits for food preparation. Around AD 14, at the start of the construction of the city, the excavated area was levelled and used for the storage of building materials.

Simple residential buildings
After the construction of Emona, two residential houses stood on the site. The rooms of Insula XLVI were arranged around a courtyard with a fountain, and we have documented the drainage channels that led rainwater from the roofs of the courtyard to the Ljubljanica River. The neighbouring insula XXVII was much less well preserved. In the surveyed area, the courtyard was a colonnaded courtyard paved with simple, mostly pebble or thin mortar paving. The pits in which the vertical columns were placed indicate that the rooms were partitioned with wooden walls, and the remains of a kiln indicate that there was probably craft activity in the rooms.

In the middle of the 1st century, during the reign of Emperor Claudius, Emona received first a sewerage system and a little later a water supply system. This was followed by changes in the functionality and layout of the rooms in both insulae. A swimming pool was also added, indicating the beginning of the transformation of a private space into a public bath.

Public bathing complex
At the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th century, a major renovation followed. The road between the two insulae was built over, they were merged into a single public bathing complex and completely rebuilt. The result was a heated area with a hypocaust, brick columns and slabs, on which a mosaic pavement of small black and white stone cubes was laid, and a large pool (at least 22 m²) with a very heavily built shell and small semicircular finials on the sides for bathing in the unheated water. Traces of repairs and renovation of the complex were also discovered, testifying to the long use of the building.

The statue of Priapus
Among the more than 12 tonnes of material found, a tiny bronze statue of the god Priapus, barely three centimetres high, stands out. His image was believed to ward off evil and was therefore a common sight in the daily lives of the inhabitants of Roman cities, who worshipped him as the guardian of fields and homes and as a symbol of the fertility of the land, animals and people.