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Hidden gem1st – 4th c. ADTicketed

Aquae Iasae

Varaždinske Toplice

bath · Varaždin County, Croatia

What it is
Aquae Iasae was a Roman spa town built around a hot sulphur spring, in what is now Varaždinske Toplice in northern Croatia.
What you’ll see
A compact archaeological park covering about 6,000 m² of Roman public buildings of the 1st to 4th centuries.
Worth the trip?
Yes, if you are in northern Croatia or near Varaždin: it is small, cheap and unusual — a Roman spa with the spring still steaming in its Roman basin. The operator calls it the only complex of its kind this well preserved in inland Croatia.
Getting there & cost
The park is in the centre of Varaždinske Toplice (the operator). A bus stop is mapped about 130 m away and a car park about 190 m away (OpenStreetMap).Ticketed · The archaeological site is €3 · checked 26 September 2026Hours, tickets and parking
Looking down on an archaeological park of low Roman walls under long curved metal roofs and plastic covers, with a rectangular pool of water in the middle and the houses of a small town behind.
The archaeological park in the centre of Varaždinske Toplice, with the spring basin in the middle. · Photo: Rosa Gallica · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Roman stone walls several metres high along the foot of a green slope, with steam rising from a pool of water behind a railing and gravel paths among the ruins in the foreground.
The remains of the Roman baths, with steam rising from the thermal spring. · Photo: Fraxinus · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Mist rising from still green water in a stone-lined basin, with the stumps of three square stone pillars in the foreground and the rim of the basin just under the surface.
The Roman spring basin still holds warm water. · Photo: Rosa Gallica · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Aquae Iasae was a Roman spa town built around a hot sulphur spring, in what is now Varaždinske Toplice in northern Croatia. In the middle of the modern town, its baths, forum and temples have been excavated, with walls up to 3 m high — and the spring still steams in the Roman basin.

What is there today

A compact archaeological park covering about 6,000 m² of Roman public buildings of the 1st to 4th centuries. There is the bath complex, with its pools and a bath basilica later adapted for Christian worship; the forum, surrounded by porticoes, with the thermal spring at its centre; and the capitolium, with temples of Minerva, Jupiter and Juno — though hr.wikipedia notes that no inscription or statue of Jupiter has yet been found there. The best-preserved buildings are from after Constantine’s restoration in the 4th century, and their walls stand 2 to 3 m high, with water channels, heating, floors, thresholds, wall paintings and reliefs (the operator). In the forum, excavations from 2006 uncovered the Roman spring basin, 8 by 13.5 m, built of large stone blocks; the spring, at 58 °C, has been in use for 2,000 years (the operator).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, if you are in northern Croatia or near Varaždin: it is small, cheap and unusual — a Roman spa with the spring still steaming in its Roman basin. The operator calls it the only complex of its kind this well preserved in inland Croatia. The catch is the opening hours: individual visitors can only get in on weekday mornings and early afternoons.

Getting there

The park is in the centre of Varaždinske Toplice (the operator). A bus stop is mapped about 130 m away and a car park about 190 m away (OpenStreetMap).

It is open Monday to Friday from 09.00 to 14.30, and at weekends only for groups by arrangement; it closes on public holidays. Entry to the site is €3; the museum’s archaeological display in the Old Town costs another €3, and a guided tour is €20 in Croatian or €30 in English or German (Zavičajni muzej Varaždinske Toplice, read 26 September 2026).

Visiting details

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 09.00–14.30; at weekends only by prior arrangement for groups; closed on public holidays. Groups can also visit outside these hours if they book at least three days ahead.
Tickets
The archaeological site is €3. The museum's archaeological display in the Old Town (Stari grad) is €3 (€2 for pupils, students and pensioners, €1.50 for pre-school children). A guided tour is €20 in Croatian or €30 in German or English.
Parking
The nearest mapped car park is about 190 m away, and a bus stop about 130 m (OpenStreetMap).

Before you go

  • Weekday opening only for individual visitors; at weekends the site opens for booked groups.

Hours and prices checked 26 September 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

The name means “the waters of the Iasi”, the people who lived here before the Romans; the Romans found a tradition of using the thermal water already in place (the operator). The town probably grew up under the Flavian emperors, on the road from Poetovio (Ptuj) to Iovia (Ludbreg), in the province of Pannonia Superior. Its hot sulphur water made it a centre of healing, trade and worship, visited among others by soldiers; visitors left inscriptions thanking Minerva, Diana, Apollo, Aesculapius, the nymphs of the spring and Mithras. The most valuable find, a statue of Minerva made in Poetovio in the 2nd century, was found at the temple entrance in 1967 (hr.wikipedia). Goths devastated the town at the end of the 3rd century; Constantine the Great restored it at the beginning of the 4th, but it was destroyed and abandoned during the invasions later in that century (hr.wikipedia). The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb began excavating in 1953 (hr.wikipedia; the operator).

Nearby

  • The same stele seen close and square on, its upper panels carved with figures and animals, the lower half plain stone pierced by several round holes, standing on a stepped stone base.

    Photo: Clemens Stockner · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    48 km · city · Ptuj

    Poetovio – Ptuj

    The Orpheus Monument stands on Slovenski trg in front of the Town Tower, where it has always stood: it is the oldest public monument in Slovenia still in its original place, and the largest known monument from the Roman province of Pannonia Superior (en.wikipedia).

  • A broken stone slab carved in crowded relief with small figures — a radiate head, a figure with a round shield, standing and reclining figures — against a plain reddish-brown background.

    Photo: Primož Jakopin · CC BY 4.0 · Commons

    49 km · temple · Ptuj

    Mithraeum III of Ptuj

    The foundations of the shrine, under a protective building, with its original fittings: altars, reliefs, cult images and scenes of the Mithras legend (heritage register).

  • A marble statue of a man in a short tunic and cloak, striding forward, bent under the weight of a bull slung across his shoulders, on a squared base; the background is plain reddish brown.

    Photo: Primož Jakopin · CC BY 4.0 · Commons

    50 km · temple · Hajdina

    Mithraeum I of Ptuj

    A protective building covers the foundations of the shrine, with its floors and its altars in place — the register lists altars to Mithras and to his torch-bearers Cautes and Cautopates.

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 197127CC BY
Wikidata Q3510699CC0
Vici.org 11789CC BY-SA (text), CC0 (metadata)
OpenStreetMap way/465541871ODbL
Wikipedia (hr) — Aquae IasaeCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (de) — Aquae IasaeCC BY-SA 4.0
Zavičajni muzej Varaždinske Toplice — Arheološki park Aquae Iasae (the operator)licence not recorded
Zavičajni muzej Varaždinske Toplice — tickets and opening hourslicence not recorded