Bagni di Nerone - Pisa

The Baths of Nero are located in Largo del Parlascio, a term that to the Germans meant bear fighting place, near the Porta a Lucca, opened in 1546 and decorated with a double sandstone cornice. The two small gates on either side of the main gate were opened to pedestrian traffic when the city's tram system passed through the gate.
The Roman Baths of the 1st century AD, or Nero's Baths, were a vast complex of facilities, which the population went to almost daily for hygiene reasons. The baths were fed by the Roman aqueduct of Caldaccoli, which dates back to the 1st century AD and is only partially visible today near San Giuliano Terme, where its course began. Nero's involvement in the construction of the baths cannot have taken place, as the bath complex is dated to the last two decades of the 1st century AD, almost 20 years after the emperor's death. The origin of the name must therefore be sought in the legend of Saint Torpé, a Pisan martyr who was beheaded in 68 AD. The building, square on the outside and octagonal on the inside, of which the four brick walls still exist, has been identified as the laconicum, for baths with warm air. The remains of the walls of the gym, the apodyterium (the dressing room) and only two walls of the tiepidarium are visible.
Close to the thermal baths is the Bastion of Brunelleschi: during the reign of Cosimo il Vecchio de'Medici, several fortification projects were launched, including the construction of the Bastion of Parlascio, which takes its name from the oldest gate, dating from 1157, which is included in it. It is a monumental gate, which still has decorations on the consoles that support the great arch. Filippo Brunelleschi built an internal opposite door in 1435 and rebuilt the now-vanished 14th-century tower, but the entire bastion was not completed until 1543 by architect Nanni Unghero, under the reign of Cosimo I. The entire building was then converted into an icehouse and remained so. until the beginning of the 20th century. During the war it served as an air raid shelter.
Next to the so-called "Bagni di Nerone" is the church of San Torpé. The religious building dates back to the 13th century and belongs to the Discalced Carmelites. The church, which was thoroughly restored in the 18th century, has since 1260 the head of the saint, considered one of the patron saints of the city, in a silver bust in the high altar.

The legend of Saint Torpé: In the 1st century AD, the pissan Caius Silvius Torpetius, also known as Torpé, Torpete and Tropez, was an official at the court of Nero. These were the years after the passage of Peter the Apostle to the Basilica of San Piero a Grado, and Torpé, who converted to Christianity by being baptized by a hermit on Monte Pisano, was imprisoned and tortured, but already the violence inflicted on him was in vain: he died only by beheading, on April 29, 68 AD. ch. The symbol of his martyrdom is the generic palm tree. His head was thrown into the Arno and when it was recovered it was buried on the site of the later church. Torpé's body was left in a boat at the mouth of the Arno, along with a rooster (protection and guidance during the day) and a dog (at night). Legend has it that the boat sailed as far as the French coast, where it arrived at a town called Heraclea and was renamed Saint-Tropez in honor of the saint whose remains he still guards.

Willem Vandenameele