Named after emperor Diocletian and built from 298 AD to 306 AD, they were the largest of the imperial baths. The project was originally commissioned by Maximian upon his return to Rome in the autumn of 298 and was continued after his and Diocletian's abdication under Constantius, father of Constantine. In the early 5th century, the baths were restored.The baths remained in use until the siege of Rome in 537 when the Ostrogothic king Vitiges cut off the aqueducts.
In the 1560s, Pope Pius IV ordered the building of a basilica in some of the remains, to commemorate Christian martyrs who according to legend died during the baths' construction, Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. To this was attached a Carthusian charterhouse. Michelangelo was commissioned to design the church and he made use of both the frigidarium and tepidarium structures.
After Rome became part of the Kingdom of Italy, its seat of government was moved to the city. In 1884, the Carthusians abandoned the charterhouse and the area around the baths was subject to substantial changes. Roma Termini station was built, the Ministry of the Economy moved to the area, and the Grand Hotel and Palazzo Massimo were constructed.
The baths occupy the high-ground on the northeast summit of the Viminal, the smallest of the Seven hills of Rome, just inside the Agger of the Servian Wall (near what are today the Piazza della Repubblica and Termini rail station). They served as a bath for the people residing in the Viminal, Quirinal, and Esquiline quarters of the city.
The enclosure of the bath complex took up 13 hectares (32 acres) of the district, about the same size as the Baths of Caracalla. The main entrance was to the northeast. To the southwest was a large exedra (now still visible as the outline of Piazza della Repubblica). The exedra was flanked by two large buildings, likely libraries. These in turn connected to circular halls: one of them is now the church of San Bernardo, the other is visible at the start of Via del Viminale. The central block of the baths was 280 (910 feet) by 160 meters (520 feet) or 10.85 acres (compared to the 6 acres of the Baths of Caracalla).
According to Olympiodorus, the baths were able to hold up to 3,000 people at one time. However, this claim is disputed because Olympiodorus never described how he calculated this figure.
Parts of the structure were converted to ecclesiastical or other use, including: Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri; Church of San Bernardo alle Terme; Sections of the National Roman Museum; A part was for many years, starting in the 1870s, the studio of the sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel. The octagonal hall served as a planetarium from 1928 until the 1980s.
The museum is located in what is known as "Michelangelo's Cloister" and other buildings that were part of the Carthusian monastery as well as several halls south of the eastern palestra. The former main entrance hall of the museum connects the 16th-century outer garden around a large Krater used as a fountain with the cloister. The Epigraphic Museum is located in modern premises. The prehistoric exhibits are on the first floor of the cloister colonnade. The cloister itself exhibits numerous pieces of statuary.
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