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The Roman Baths are well-preserved ''
thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...
'' in the city of Bath, Somerset, England. A temple was constructed on the site between 60–70AD in the first few decades of
Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...
. Its presence led to the development of the small Roman urban settlement known as ''
Aquae Sulis Aquae Sulis (Latin for ''Waters of Sulis'') was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is the English city of Bath, Somerset. The Antonine Itinerary register of Roman roads lists the town as ''Aquis Sulis.'' Ptolemy records t ...
'' around the site. The Roman baths—designed for
public bathing Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
—were used until the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century AD. According to the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', the original Roman baths were in ruins a century later. The area around the natural springs was redeveloped several times during the Early and
Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...
. The Roman Baths are preserved in four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House, and a museum which holds artefacts from ''Aquae Sulis''. However, all buildings at street level date from the 19th century. It is a major
tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...
in the UK, and together with the
Grand Pump Room The Grand Pump Room is a historic building in the Abbey Churchyard, Bath, Somerset, England. It is adjacent to the Roman Baths and is named for water that is pumped into the room from the baths' hot springs. Visitors can drink the water or have ...
, receives more than 1.3 million visitors annually. Visitors can tour the baths and museum but cannot enter the water.


Hot spring

The water is sourced from rainfall on the nearby Mendip Hills, which then percolates down through limestone
aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...
s to a depth of between . Geothermal energy raises the water temperature here to between . Under pressure, the heated water rises along fissures and faults in the limestone, until it bubbles up from the ground into the baths. This process is similar to an
enhanced geothermal system An enhanced geothermal system (EGS) generates geothermal electricity without the need for natural convective hydrothermal resources. Until recently, geothermal power systems have exploited only resources where naturally occurring heat, water, an ...
, which also makes use of the high pressures and temperatures below the earth's crust. Hot water at a temperature of rises here at the rate of every day, from a geological fault (the Pennyquick fault). In 1982 a new spa water bore-hole was sunk, providing a clean and safe supply of spa water for drinking in the Pump Room.


Water quality

Bath was charged with responsibility for the hot springs in a Royal Charter of 1591 granted by
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...
. This duty has now passed to
Bath and North East Somerset Council Bath and North East Somerset Council is the local council for the district of Bath and North East Somerset in Somerset, England. It is a unitary authority, with the powers and functions of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined ...
, who monitor pressure, temperature and flow rates. The thermal waters contain sodium, calcium, chloride and sulphate ions in high concentrations. The Roman Baths are no longer used for bathing. In October 1978, a young girl swimming in the restored Roman Bath with the Bath Dolphins, a local swimming club, contracted
naegleriasis Naegleriasis (also known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis; PAM) is an almost invariably fatal infection of the brain by the free-living unicellular eukaryote ''Naegleria fowleri''. Symptoms are meningitis-like and include headache, feve ...
and died, leading to the closure of the bath for several years. Tests showed ''
Naegleria fowleri ''Naegleria fowleri'', colloquially known as a "brain-eating amoeba", is a species of the genus ''Naegleria'', belonging to the phylum Percolozoa, which is technically not classified as true amoeba, but a shapeshifting amoeboflagellate excava ...
'', a deadly pathogen, in the water. The newly constructed Thermae Bath Spa nearby, and the refurbished
Cross Bath The Cross Bath in Bath Street, Bath, Somerset, England is a historic pool for bathing. The surrounding structure of the pool was built, in the style of Robert Adam by Thomas Baldwin by 1784 and remodelled by John Palmer in 1789. It is recorded i ...
, allow modern-day bathers to experience the waters via a series of more recently drilled boreholes.


History

Archaeological evidence indicates that the site of the baths may have been a centre of worship used by
Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...
; the springs were dedicated to the goddess
Sulis In the localised Celtic polytheism practised in Great Britain, Sulis was a deity worshiped at the thermal spring of Bath (now in Somerset). She was worshiped by the Romano-British as Sulis Minerva, whose votive objects and inscribed lead tabl ...
, whom the
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
s identified with
Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...
.
Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...
in his largely fictional ''
Historia Regum Britanniae ''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...
'' describes how the spring was discovered by the pre-Roman
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
king Bladud, who built the baths there. Early in the 18th century Geoffrey's obscure legend was given great prominence as a royal endorsement of the waters' qualities, with the embellishment that the spring had cured Bladud and his herd of pigs of
leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...
through wallowing in the warm mud.


Roman Britain

The name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's
Roman name Over the course of some fourteen centuries, the Romans and other peoples of Italy employed a system of nomenclature that differed from that used by other cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, consisting of a combination of personal and fam ...
of ''
Aquae Sulis Aquae Sulis (Latin for ''Waters of Sulis'') was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is the English city of Bath, Somerset. The Antonine Itinerary register of Roman roads lists the town as ''Aquis Sulis.'' Ptolemy records t ...
'' ("the waters of Sulis"). The temple was constructed in 60–70 AD and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years. During the Roman occupation of Britain, and possibly on the instructions of
Emperor Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Mino ...
, engineers drove oak piles to provide a stable foundation into the mud and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. In the 2nd century it was enclosed within a wooden barrel-vaulted building, and included the
caldarium 230px, Caldarium from the Roman Baths at Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor. A caldarium (also called a calidarium, cella caldaria or cella coctilium) was a room ...
(hot bath),
tepidarium The tepidarium was the warm (''tepidus'') bathroom of the Roman baths heated by a hypocaust or underfloor heating system. The speciality of a tepidarium is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat which directly affects the human body from t ...
(lukewarm bath), and
frigidarium A frigidarium is one of the three main bath chambers of a Roman bath or ''thermae'', namely the cold room. It often contains a swimming pool. The succession of bathing activities in the ''thermae'' is not known with certainty, but it is thought ...
(cold bath). After the
Roman withdrawal from Britain The end of Roman rule in Britain was the transition from Roman Britain to post-Roman Britain. Roman rule ended in different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances. In 383, the usurper Magnus Maximus withdrew t ...
in the first decade of the 5th century, these fell into disrepair and were eventually lost due to silting up, and flooding. The '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' suggests the original Roman baths were destroyed in the 6th century. About 130
curse tablets A curse tablet ( la, tabella defixionis, defixio; el, κατάδεσμος, katadesmos) is a small tablet with a curse written on it from the Greco-Roman world. Its name originated from the Greek and Latin words for "pierce" and "bind". The table ...
have been found. Many of the curses are related to thefts of clothes whilst the victim was bathing.


Post-Roman use

The baths have been modified on several occasions, including the 12th century, when
John of Tours John of Tours or John de Villula (died 1122) was a medieval Bishop of Wells in England who moved the diocese seat to Bath. He was a native of Tours and was King William I of England's doctor before becoming a bishop. After his consecratio ...
built a curative bath over the King's Spring reservoir, and the 16th century, when the city corporation built a new bath (Queen's Bath) to the south of the spring. Anne of Denmark came to Bath twice for her health. The court physician Théodore de Mayerne bathed
Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...
in the King's Bath on 19 May 1613. She returned in August 1615. Anne of Denmark was surprised by a flame caused by natural gas in King's Bath, and thereafter used the New Bath or Queen's Bath where a column with a crown and the inscription "Anna Regnum Sacrum" was added in her honour. The spring is now housed in 18th-century buildings, designed by architects John Wood, the Elder and
John Wood, the Younger John Wood, the Younger (25 February 1728 – 18 June 1782) was an English architect, working principally in the city of Bath, Somerset. He was the son of the architect John Wood, the Elder. His designs were highly influential during the 18t ...
, father and son. Visitors drank the waters in the
Grand Pump Room The Grand Pump Room is a historic building in the Abbey Churchyard, Bath, Somerset, England. It is adjacent to the Roman Baths and is named for water that is pumped into the room from the baths' hot springs. Visitors can drink the water or have ...
, a Neoclassical salon which remains in use, both for taking the waters and for social functions. Victorian expansion of the baths complex followed the Neoclassical tradition established by the Woods. In 1810, the hot springs failed and William Smith opened up the Hot Bath Spring to the bottom, where he found that the spring had not failed but had flowed into a new channel. Smith restored the water to its original course. The visitor entrance is via an 1897 concert hall by J. M. Brydon. It is an eastward continuation of the Grand Pump Room, with a glass-domed centre and single-storey radiused corner. The Grand Pump Room was begun in 1789 by Thomas Baldwin. He resigned in 1791 and John Palmer continued the scheme through to completion in 1799. The elevation on to Abbey Church Yard has a centre piece of four engaged Corinthian columns with entablatures and
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...
. It has been designated by
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...
as a grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. The north colonnade was also designed by Thomas Baldwin. The south
colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...
is similar but had an upper floor added in the late 19th century. The museum and Queen's Bath including the "Bridge" spanning York Street to the City Laundry were by Charles Edward Davis in 1889. It comprises a southward extension to the Grand Pump Room, within which some parts of the 17th-century Queen's Bath remain.


Museum

The museum houses artefacts from the Roman period, including objects that were thrown into the Sacred Spring, presumably as offerings to the goddess. These include more than 12,000 Denari
coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
, which is the largest collective votive deposit known from Britain. A gilt bronze head of the goddess
Sulis In the localised Celtic polytheism practised in Great Britain, Sulis was a deity worshiped at the thermal spring of Bath (now in Somerset). She was worshiped by the Romano-British as Sulis Minerva, whose votive objects and inscribed lead tabl ...
Minerva, which was discovered nearby in 1727, is displayed. The Bath Roman Temple stood on a podium more than two metres above the surrounding courtyard, approached by a flight of steps. On the approach there were four large, fluted Corinthian columns supporting a
frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
and decorated
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...
above. The pediment, parts of which are displayed in the museum, is the triangular ornamental section, wide and from the apex to the bottom, above the pillars on the front of the building. It featured the powerful central image of a possible "
Gorgon A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the te ...
" head glowering down from a height of on all who approached the temple. The great head itself has snakes entwined within its beard, wings above its ears, beetling brows and a heavy moustache. Although there is some disagreement about what this really represents (as
Gorgon A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the te ...
s are usually female), most scholars have converged toward viewing it as a deliberate syncretism of Minerva's Gorgon attribute with the face of a local god who presided over the waters of the nearby sacred spring. The central head has also variously been interpreted as the image of a water god such as Oceanus, or a local Celtic god of the sun. Besides the Gorgon head, the pediment's artistic motif has more recently also been compared to the Jupiter-Ammon '' clipei'' found throughout Roman fora and which sometimes depicted local river gods in Celtic provinces. In early 2010 various stones on the pediment were conserved and rearranged. In 2016, planning permission was received for a new learning centre aimed at schoolchildren and linked to the baths by a tunnel. Funding is being sought from the
Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
and, if successful, it is hoped the centre will open in 2019.


Preservation

The late 19th century carvings of Roman Emperors and Governors of Roman Britain on the terrace overlooking the Great Bath are particularly susceptible to the effect of acid rain and are protected with a wash of a sacrificial shelter coat every few years. Exhibits within the temple precincts are susceptible to warm air which had the effect of drawing corrosive salts out of the Roman stonework. To help reduce this, a new ventilation system was installed in 2006. In 2009 a grant of £90,000 was made to Bath and North East Somerset Council to contribute towards the cost of re-developing displays and improving access to the Roman Baths, by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...
/Wolfson Fund, which was established to promote improvements in Museums and Galleries in England. Subsequent grants have funded further work on the exhibition design and layout by London-based specialist firm,
Event Communications Event Communications, or Event, is one of Europe's longest-established and largest museum and visitor attraction design firms; it is headquartered in London. History The firm was founded in 1986 by businesswoman Celestine ("Cel") Phelan and des ...
.


Gallery

File:Roman Baths, Bath - Spring Overflow.jpg, Spring overflow File:Roman carvings at Minera temple (24483072297).jpg, Gorgon head File:, Roman Baths, Bath, South West England, England, Britain, UK, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (40324624295).jpg,
Frigidarium A frigidarium is one of the three main bath chambers of a Roman bath or ''thermae'', namely the cold room. It often contains a swimming pool. The succession of bathing activities in the ''thermae'' is not known with certainty, but it is thought ...
(cold pool) File:Roman baths hypocaust.JPG,
Caldarium 230px, Caldarium from the Roman Baths at Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor. A caldarium (also called a calidarium, cella caldaria or cella coctilium) was a room ...
. The room uses Roman hypocausts; a floor would have been supported by these structures, where hot air would circulate beneath and heat the room. File:Romanbathsmodel.JPG, Model of Roman Bath and
Roman Temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of ...
of Sulis Minerva as they would have looked at their greatest extent in 4th century AD File:Roman Baths, Bath - Sea Horse Mosaic.jpg,
Hippocamp The hippocampus or hippocamp, also ''hippokampos'' (plural: hippocampi or hippocamps; grc, ἱππόκαμπος, from , "horse" and , "sea monster"
mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
File:Roman Baths, Bath - Sacred Spring.jpg, The 'Sacred Pool'


See also

* List of Roman public baths


References


External links


Official websiteBBC 360 degree panoramaHistory of Bath’s Spa.
{{Good article Ancient Roman baths in England Grade I listed buildings in Bath, Somerset Grade I listed museum buildings Holy wells in England Museums in Bath, Somerset Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom Baths Roman religious sites in England Scheduled monuments in Bath and North East Somerset Bath Temples of Minerva