ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IN DIOCLETIANOPOLIS (Mitko Madzharov – m_madjarov@abv.bg, Dimitrinka Tancheva) An area of 120 sq. m was explored. Part of a room with two pools was discovered to the west of room No. 1. The entrance between the two rooms is vaulted. Subsequently, the entrance was walled up. The wall between the two rooms is preserved up to 2.47 m in height. Three columns of bricks, 1.60 m wide, and two entrances situated between them, each one 2 m wide, are located at the southern side of the room. The vault was constructed of bricks and stepped over the three columns of bricks and the wall between the two rooms. Initially, the western entrance of the room was narrowed and subsequently it was walled up. The walls of the room were paneled with marble veneer over a mortar plaster, up to 10 cm thick. The floor of the room was paved with marble slabs, which lie over a mortar plaster spread on a level of bricks. The southern pool is 3.91 m wide and 1.10 m deep and is paneled with marble, 5 cm thick. Three steps lead into it. A marble catchment stone was found in the room, placed over the drainage of the mineral spring located at 30 m to the north. The eastern wall of another room was discovered to the south of the room with two pools. The room has arches from its southern side. The destruction layer was c. 1.50 m thick and contained fragmentary Late Antique pottery, bricks, marble slabs and marble architectural fragments. The baths were built at the end of the 3rd century AD when Emperor Diocletian founded Diocletianopolis.