The Bath House: One of the best-preserved Roman remains in the world

Source: http://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/0...-in-the-world/

One of the best-preserved Roman remains in the world is the bathing complex in the city of Bath, England. It is one of the most-visited places in the country and shows part of the day-to-day life of Ancient Rome.

The complex has four main features: the Roman Temple, the Sacred Spring, the Museum, and the Roman Bath House.

The ancient complex is below the modern street level, and the buildings above were built in the 19th century. The most famous of the four features are the baths which, together with the Grand Pump Room, receive over a million visitors per year. Tourists can see the baths and the museum, but no one is allowed to enter the water.


The original Roman bath without new architectural elements.


The Pump Rooms.

The water, which bubbles up from the ground, comes through limestone aquifers which are 8,900 and 14,100 feet deep. The temperature can reach up to 96 degrees Celsius. When pressured, the water rises to the surface. This process is pretty much the same as the Enhanced Geothermal System, which also uses the temperatures and high pressure below the crust of the Earth to heat water.


The entrance of the Roman Baths.

The first shrine that was built at the hot springs was dedicated to the Celtic goddess Sulis — for the Romans, the goddess Minerva. However, the local name for the goddess continued to be used, leading to the town’s Roman name, Aquae Sulis (“Water of Sulis”). A written record from 836 BC mentions the springs and their discovery by the Briton king Bladud.


The Great Bath.

This fragment can be read in the “Historia Regum Britanniae” written ca. 1136 AD by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who claims that Bladud built the first Moorish baths at that place. The legend also claims that this spring cured the king of leprosy. The Roman temple at Aquae Sulis was built in 70 AD, and the baths were constructed over the next 300 years. The Romans might have designed and decorated the baths under the direction of Emperor Claudius.


A warm room in the baths.

In the second century AD, the bath complex included a hot bath (caldarium), a cold bath (frigidarium), and a warm bath (tepidarium). In the fifth century, when the Romans left Britain, these baths fell into disrepair. According to the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,” the original Roman baths were destroyed and lost in the sixth century.

The baths have been modified on several occasions. In the 12th century a curative bath was built over the King’s Spring reservoir by John of Tours, and in the 16th century, the Queen’s Bath was built by the city corporation. The buildings above the baths where the spring is now housed were built in the 19th century by the architect John Wood and his son.


Interior of Aquae Sulis.

After the Hot Springs failed in 1810, William Smith opened a new bath called Hot Bath Spring. He discovered that the spring hadn’t actually failed, but had instead flowed into a new channel. So, he restored the course of the water, and the Baths were filled in less time than before.


The bronze head of Sulis or Minerva.

The neo-classical salon, the Grand Pump Room, is still in use for drinking water and social functions. Thomas Baldwin began building the room in 1789, and it was completed by John Palmer in 1799.

The concert hall designed by J. M. Brydon in 1897 is the visitors’ entrance, adding to the Grand Pump Room. In the museum, there are artifacts from the ancient Roman period, many of which are objects which were thrown in the spring as an offering to the goddess for good health. One of the most famous objects is a bronze head of the goddess Sulis, discovered in 1727.