The Thermal Building of the Sanctuary of Saint Philip in Hierapolis (Phrygia, Turkey)

The paper is focused on the transformation processes that occurred to the thermal buildings during the period between the late Imperial age and the early Byzantine times. The case study is represented by the thermal building in the Sanctuary of St-Philip, recently discovered by the Italian Archaeological Mission at Hierapolis in Phrygia. On the Eastern Hill, that was previously occupied by the Roman age necropolis, was built a complex dedicated to the memory of Philip the Apostle, who had been buried there after the martyrdom. Along the processional way directed to the Martyrion an octagonal baths was built, with various rooms different by dimension and small marble-covered basins. The religious and not only hygienic function of this balneum if also clarified by the finding of eulogiae and small glass phials for oils: the worshippers could in fact clean up and purify themselves before moving up to the Martyrion. The building is no longer designed for the gymnastics, but to individual hygienic practices, along with the ritual ones, in isolated and hidden spaces: a brand new idea of baths that links this structure to the typologies of the later Arab and Turkish hammam.