in
Bath, England in
Thessaloniki in Bosnia and Herzegovina Spa therapies have existed since the classical times when taking bath with water was considered as a popular means to treat illnesses. The practice of travelling to hot or cold springs for medicinal purposes dates back to prehistoric times. Archaeological investigations near hot springs in France and
Czech Republic revealed
Bronze Age weapons and offerings. Many people around the world believed that bathing in a particular spring, well, or river resulted in physical and spiritual purification. Forms of ritual purification existed among the
Arabs,
Persians,
Ottoman Turks,
Native Americans,
Babylonians,
Egyptians,
Greeks, and
Romans. Today,
ritual purification through water can be found in the religious ceremonies of
Muslims,
Jews,
Christians,
Buddhists, and
Hindus. These ceremonies reflect the ancient belief in the healing and purifying properties of water. Complex bathing rituals were also practiced in ancient Egypt, in prehistoric cities of the
Indus Valley, and in
Aegean civilizations. Typically, people did little construction around the water, and what was constructed was temporary.
Bathing in Greek and Roman times in
Bulgaria. An ancient Roman city was built in the 1st century AD because of the mineral springs in the vicinity. , the Netherlands (reconstructed) ,
Extremadura,
Spain Some of the earliest descriptions of western bathing practices came from Greece. The Greeks began bathing regimens that formed the foundation for modern spa procedures. Aegean people utilized small bathtubs, wash basins, and foot baths for personal cleanliness. The earliest such findings are the baths in the palace complex at
Knossos,
Crete, and the
alabaster bathtubs excavated in
Akrotiri,
Santorini; both date from the mid-2nd millennium BC. They established public baths and showers within their
gymnasium complexes for relaxation and personal hygiene.
Greek mythology specified that certain natural springs or
tidal pools were blessed by the gods to cure disease. Around these sacred pools, Greeks established bathing facilities for those desiring healing. Supplicants left offerings to the gods for healing at these sites and bathed themselves in hopes of a cure. The
Spartans developed a primitive vapor bath. At
Serangeum, an early Greek
balneum (bathhouse, loosely translated), bathing chambers were cut into the hillside from which the hot springs issued. A series of niches cut into the rock above the chambers held bathers' clothing. One of the bathing chambers had a decorative mosaic floor depicting a driver and chariot pulled by four horses, a woman followed by two dogs, and a dolphin below. Thus, the early Greeks used the natural features, but expanded them and added their own amenities, such as decorations and shelves. During later Greek civilization, bathhouses were often built in conjunction with athletic fields. and the
popes allocated to the Romans bathing through
diaconia, or private
Lateran baths, or even a myriad of monastic
bath houses functioning in the eighth and ninth centuries. The
Popes maintained baths in their residences, and
bath houses known as "
charity baths" as they served both the clerics and the poor incorporated into Christian Church buildings or those of monasteries. Catholic religious orders of the
Augustinians' and
Benedictines' rules contained
ritual purification.
Benedictine monks played a role in the development and promotion of the spa, inspired by
Benedict of Nursia's encouragement for the practice of therapeutic bathing.
Protestantism also played a prominent role in the development of the British spas. Bathing procedures during this period varied greatly. In the 16th century, physicians at
Karlsbad, Bohemia, prescribed mineral water to be taken internally as well as externally. Patients periodically bathed in warm water for up to 10 or 11 hours while drinking glasses of mineral water. The first bath session occurred in the morning, and the second in the afternoon. This treatment lasted several days until skin pustules formed and broke resulting in the draining of "poisons" considered to be the source of the disease. This was followed by a series of shorter, hotter baths to wash the infection away and close the eruptions. This revival changed the way of taking a spa treatment. For example, in Karlsbad the accepted method of drinking the mineral water required sending large barrels to individual boardinghouses where the patients drank physician-prescribed dosages in the solitude of their rooms. David Beecher in 1777 recommended that the patients come to the fountainhead for the water and that each patient should first do some prescribed exercises. This innovation increased the medicinal benefits obtained and gradually physical activity became part of the European bathing regimen. In 1797, in England, James Currie published
The Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fever and other Diseases.This book, along with numerous local pamphlets on composition of spa water, stimulated additional interest in water cures and advocated the external and internal use of water as part of the curing process. Baths on the banks of the
Seine river, in Paris (1797)
Bathing in the 19th and 20th centuries ) in
Budapest, Hungary , Slovakia In the 19th century, bathing became a more accepted practice as physicians realized some of the benefits that cleanliness could provide. A
cholera epidemic in
Liverpool, England in 1842 resulted in a sanitation renaissance, facilitated by the overlapping
hydropathy and sanitation movements, and the implementation of a series of statutes known collectively as "The Baths and Wash-houses Acts 1846 to 1896". The result was increased facilities for bathing and washed clothes, and more people participating in these activities. In most instances, the formal architectural development of European spas took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. The architecture of Bath, England, developed along
Georgian and
Neoclassical lines, generally following
Palladian structures. The most important
architectural form that emerged was the "crescent" — a semi-elliptical street plan used in many areas of England. The
spa architecture of
Carlsbad,
Marienbad,
Franzensbad, and
Baden-Baden was primarily Neoclassical, but the literature seems to indicate that large bathhouses were not constructed until well into the 19th century. The emphasis on drinking the waters rather than bathing in them led to the development of separate structures known as
Trinkhallen (drinking halls) where those taking the cure spent hours drinking water from the springs.
Bathing in colonial America , Warm Springs, Virginia, built in 1761, is the oldest spa building in the United States. The spa waters flow through the centre of the building. President
Thomas Jefferson bathed here. Some European colonists brought with them knowledge of the hot water therapy for medicinal purposes, and others learned the benefits of hot springs from
Native Americans. Europeans acquired the land on which many of the hot and cold springs were situated from various tribes, and altered them to suit European tastes. By the 1760s, British colonists were traveling to hot and cold springs in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia in search of water cures. Among the more frequently visited of these springs were
Bath,
Yellow, and
Bristol Springs in Pennsylvania; and
Warm Springs,
Hot Springs, and
White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia. Colonial doctors gradually began to recommend hot springs for ailments.
Benjamin Rush, American patriot and physician, praised the springs of Bristol, Pennsylvania, in 1773.
Samuel Tenney in 1783 and
Valentine Seaman in 1792 examined the water of Ballston Spa in New York and wrote of possible medicinal uses of the springs. Hotels were constructed to accommodate visitors to the various springs. Entrepreneurs operated establishments where the travellers could lodge, eat, and drink. Although spa activity had been central to Saratoga in the 1810s, by the 1820s the resort had hotels with great ballrooms, opera houses, stores, and clubhouses. The Union Hotel, first built in 1803, had its own esplanade, and by the 1820s had its own fountain and formal landscaping, but with only two small bathhouses. As the resort developed as a tourist destination, mineral bathhouses became auxiliary structures and not the central features of the resort, although the drinking of mineral water continued to be common. Although the purpose of the Saratoga and other New York spas were to provide access to mineral waters, their main attraction was a complex social life and cultural cachet. However, the wider audience the resort garnered by the late 1820s began to waver, and in the mid-1830s, as a bid to revive itself, it turned to horse racing. By the mid-1850s hot and cold spring resorts existed in 20 states. Many of these resorts contained similar architectural features. Most health resorts had a large, two-story central building near or at the springs, with smaller structures surrounding it. The main building provided the guests with facilities for dining, dancing on the first floor, and sleeping rooms on the second. The outlying structures were individual guest cabins, and other auxiliary buildings formed a semicircle or U-shape around the large building. During the last half of the 19th century, western entrepreneurs developed natural hot and cold springs into resorts — from the
Mississippi River to the West Coast. Many of these spas offered individual tub baths, vapor baths, douche sprays, needle showers, and pool bathing to their guests. The various railroads that spanned the country promoted these resorts to encourage train travel.
Hot Springs, Arkansas, became a major resort for people from the large metropolitan areas of
St. Louis and
Chicago. The popularity of the spas continued into the 20th century. Some medical critics, however, posited that the thermal waters in such renowned resorts as Hot Springs, Virginia, and Saratoga Springs, New York, were no more beneficial to health than ordinary heated water. In response, various spa owners claimed to develop better hydrotherapy for their patients. At the Saratoga spa, treatments for heart and circulatory disorders, rheumatic conditions, nervous disorders, metabolic diseases, and skin diseases were developed. In 1910, the New York state government began purchasing the principal springs to protect them from exploitation. When
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was governor of New York, he pushed for a European type of spa development at Saratoga. The architects for the new complex spent two years studying the technical aspects of bathing in Europe. Completed in 1933, the development had three bathhouses — Lincoln, Washington, and Roosevelt — a drinking hall, the Hall of Springs, and a building housing the
Simon Baruch Research Institute. Four additional buildings composed the recreation area and housed arcades and a swimming pool decorated with blue faience terra-cotta tile.
Saratoga Spa State Park's Neoclassical buildings were laid out in a grand manner, with formal perpendicular axes, solid brick construction, and stone and concrete Roman-revival detailing. The spa was surrounded by a natural park that had of bridle paths, "with measured walks at scientifically calculated gradients through its groves and vales, with spouting springs adding unexpected touches to its vistas, with the tumbling waters of Geyser Brook flowing beneath bridges of the fine roads. Full advantage has been taken of the natural beauty of the park, but no formal landscaping". Promotional literature advertised the attractions directly outside the spa: shopping, horse races, and historic sites associated with revolutionary war history. New York Governor
Herbert Lehman opened the new facilities to the public in July 1935. ,
Croatia. Other leading spas in the U.S. during this period were
French Lick, Indiana; Hot Springs and White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and
Warm Springs, Georgia. French Lick specialized in treating obesity and constipation through a combination of bathing and drinking the water and exercising. Hot Springs, Virginia, specialized in digestive ailments and heart diseases, and White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, treated these ailments and skin diseases. Both resorts offered baths where the water would wash continuously over the patients as they lay in a shallow pool. Warm Springs, Georgia, gained a reputation for reportedly treating
infantile paralysis by a procedure of baths and exercise. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who earlier supported Saratoga, became a frequent visitor and promoter of this spa. ==Recent trends==