The paper focuses on the late phases of the Sanctuary of Saint Philip in Hierapolis of Phrygia (Denizli,Turkey), discovered during the recent research of 2010-2012. After the 7th and 10th century earthquakes,the different buildings of the early-Byzantine sanctuary, constructed on the eastern hill of Hierapolis,underwent significant transformations. The three-aisled church, built around the Roman tomb ofApostle Philip, became a cemetery area after the seismic damages of the 10th century; during the Seljukperiod (13th-14th century), the tomb and the nearby chapel were used for residential purposes, attestedalso by pottery fragments.

The paper is focused on the transformation processes that occurred to the thermal buildings during the period between the late Imperial age and the early Byzantine times. The case study is represented by the thermal building in the Sanctuary of St-Philip, recently discovered by the Italian Archaeological Mission at Hierapolis in Phrygia. On the Eastern Hill, that was previously occupied by the Roman age necropolis, was built a complex dedicated to the memory of Philip the Apostle, who had been buried there after the martyrdom. Along the processional way directed to the Martyrion an octagonal baths was built, with various rooms different by dimension and small marble-covered basins. The religious and not only hygienic function of this balneum if also clarified by the finding of eulogiae and small glass phials for oils: the worshippers could in fact clean up and purify themselves before moving up to the Martyrion. The building is no longer designed for the gymnastics, but to individual hygienic practices, along with the ritual ones, in isolated and hidden spaces: a brand new idea of baths that links this structure to the typologies of the later Arab and Turkish hammam.