EXETER Cathedral has applied for multimillion-pound funding to unveil Exeter's Roman bath house buried under Cathedral Green, the Echo can reveal.
The scheme will cost £12.8m and the cathedral has applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the majority of the funding.
It will find out if it has been successful in the next few months.
These new images are the first unveiled by the cathedral as part of the project, which it claims would attract at least 100,000 extra visitors to the city annually.
The scheme would see the construction of an underground centre, with interpretation to help visitors understand the remains.
The underground centre will also tell the story of Roman and Saxon Exeter.
The Anglo Saxon Exeter Book and the Exon Domesday – two of the Cathedral's greatest treasures – would also be put on display.
Above ground would be a new café and shop for visitors.
The project to uncover the remains – which are some of the most significant Roman structures in the UK – has been developed over the last 12 months, with the support of English Heritage, the city council and the public.
The cathedral hopes to construct an underground centre, with interpretation to help visitors understand the remains. Building the main visitor centre underground will ensure that the Cathedral Green with its view of the iconic West Front is unimpeded.
The project, which has been called Foundations, is the first step in a larger programme to develop Exeter Cathedral and improve its facilities for visitors and worshippers.
The project will cost a total of £12.8m – and £8.7m has been sought from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help achieve the ambitious target.
The remainder of the funding would be raised by the cathedral and as well as other grant-making bodies.
The Dean of Exeter Cathedral, the Very Reverend Jonathan Draper, said getting this far was the result of a joint effort across the city.
He said: "The project has been submitted to the HLF for funding, and it is a highly competitive process.
"We have been helped enormously by English Heritage in putting this bid together and we are really grateful for the support we've had from across the city.
"We will hear if the bid has been successful in April.
"But we'd love to hear people's views before then, and are putting together a website where people will be able to see more details and proposed drawings of the underground visitor centre, which will also be on display in the cathedral."
Councillor Pete Edwards, leader of Exeter City Council, welcomed the progression of the plans.
He said: "It is important that this goes ahead, that we find ways of doing this.
"It is important not just for Exeter but for the whole region and therefore the whole region should contribute towards the cost."
Derek Phillips, chairman of the Exeter and Heart of Devon Tourism Partnership and vice president of Exeter Chamber of Commerce, said: "We all think this is a tremendous opportunity to bring a really world class tourist attraction into the city.
"It's been looked at in the past but with technology moving forward now we have a chance to do something really spectacular.
"I'm sure it would have a huge effect in terms of tourism marketing, particularly the short break market, which is a growing market in Exeter. I think 100,000 extra visitors a year is a conservative estimate.
"You only have to look at Bath, which is one of the top tourist attractions in the country, built around the Roman baths.
"It's very exciting and it adds to the attractions of the area. With the Jurassic coast, the RAMM and fantastic shopping in Princesshay, the redeveloped Guildhall and the bus station site, this will all add up to a package which could be really attractive to overseas visitors.
"We fully support this tremendous scheme and very much hope that it happens."
Archaeologist Paul Bidwell, one of Britain's leading specialists in the study of Roman bath houses, has described the Exeter Baths as 'one of the first two monumental masonry buildings built in Britain' being completed cAD60.They are of international historical, architectural and archaeological significance. They became the site of the Anglo-Saxon minster which became Exeter's Cathedral in 1050.
To get involved and support the project while the cathedral waits for the HLF decision, get in touch on 01392 285974 or email foundations@exeter-cathedral.org.ukHow work revealed site's story
THE remains of the Roman bath house were discovered in 1971 when work started on Cathedral Green for the construction of an underground car park.
One of the first trenches cut revealed an Anglo-Saxon burial, which itself had been cut into a Roman floor, edged with blocks.
This turned out to the remains of a large public building, later revealed as the town basilica. Further excavations in 1972 then uncovered the large, richly decorated and well preserved Roman caldarium, or hot room of a bath house, built around 60-65AD.
The excavations of the bath house and its associated buildings marked a turning point in the understanding of the spread of the Roman military in Britain, which had previously been thought to have only a token presence Devon and Cornwall.
The bath house would have accommodated several hundred bathers at any time and was more advanced in design than most of those in Italy at the time; the bath houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD were not as large or regularly planned as the one in Exeter.
