Thermenmuseum

Coriovallum was a Roman settlement at the crossing of the roads from Boulogne to Cologne and from Xanten to Aachen, and in 1940 workmen digging foundations in the middle of Heerlen hit its public bathhouse. Rather than record and destroy it, the town excavated it fully and eventually built a museum over the remains, opened in 1977 and rebuilt in 2021 - so the foundations sit where they were found, at their original level, with the plan legible: the cold, warm and hot rooms, the sweat bath, the palaestra courtyard, the hypocaust pillars that carried the heated floors, the drains and the water supply. It is among the better-preserved Roman bath complexes north of the Alps and the only one in the Netherlands. The museum around it covers Roman Limburg with finds from the settlement and the roads.

What you actually see

• A Roman bathhouse in situ - found in 1940 and preserved where it stands.
• The full plan legible - cold, warm and hot rooms with the courtyard and drains.
• Hypocaust pillars - the under-floor heating system standing in place.
• Roman Limburg finds - material from the settlement at the road crossing.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

What survives is foundations at ground level, not standing walls - the interpretation does the work. Closed Mondays. Heerlen is a post-mining town and the centre is largely modern.

Nearby

Kasteel Hoensbroek is north; Aachen is across the German border.