GIUSEPPE GEROLA’S STRANGE CRETAN BAGNI

Abstract

In his seminal work I Monumenti Veneti Dell’Isola di Creta (parte IV Opere Idrauliche), Giuseppe Gerola supplied a two-page report on five structures he considered being possible bagni. La Rosa and Portale’s more recent work on an Early Byzantine bath near the church of AghiosPavlos, on the outskirts of the village of Aghios Ioannis, near Phaestos confirmed the existence of one of Gerola’s bagni (which he had located «presso la chiesa di S. Paulo a S. Giovanni Priotissa»), thereby lending credence and weight to Gerola’s overall report. On the basis of these findings I decided to locate, and photograph, the remaining structures mentioned by Gerola and was granted kind permission to do so through the auspices of the 13^th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, conducting fieldwork in June 2013. While all four sites (which have not been cited by any scholar since Gerola) were recorded in the field and are presented here, the compact Early Byzantine bath at Aghios Giorgios Koulourida at Phournopharango proved to be of particular importance with standing elevations surviving in the field to a height of 2 m.