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Coriovallum (Heerlen)
Reconstruction of the Baths of Heerlen. Archeon, Alphen aan den Rijn (Netherlands). Photo Jona Lendering.
Reconstruction of the Baths of Heerlen (Archeon)

Coriovallum was a village near a stopping-place on the road between Tongeren and Cologne. It is well-known for the baths (or thermae), built during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, and at the moment splendidly exhibited in the Thermenmuseum. (The largest visible ruin in the Netherlands.) The baths have been rebuilt at the Archeon (in Alphen aan den Rijn).
Map of the baths at Heerlen. Design Jona Lendering. 
The Roman baths at Heerlen.
Ruins of the Roman baths
(Thermenmuseum; ©!!!)
 More than pubs and cafés in our own age, the bathhouse was the place to meet friends. Visitors were able to train their bodies on a field near the building or in the swimming pool, or could use the cold, tepid, and warm baths, or enjoy the sauna, the restaurant or the library. The combination of bathhouse, library and restaurant may surprise us, but the Romans were accustomed to it. If they wanted to say that someone was illiterate, they said he could not swim.

Reconstruction of the Baths of Heerlen. Archeon, Alphen aan den Rijn (Netherlands). Photo Jona Lendering.
Reconstruction of the Baths of Heerlen (Archeon)
The bathhouse was connected to an aqueduct and a sewer system. It is difficult to evaluate their effects. The presence of clean water and the washing down of dirt were no doubt very positive, but on the other hand, the thermae were visited by both healthy and ill people at the same time. These buildings must have been sources of illness. In Rome, we know of various kinds of infections, and the situation in Germania Inferior can not have been very different.
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