Roman Baths | History, Description, & Facts

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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Baths/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref1313618"></span>Roman Baths</strong>, well-preserved public bathing facility built about 70 CE on the site of geothermal springs in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Britain" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Roman Britain</a>, now in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Bath-England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Bath</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">England</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">U.K.</a> The hot mineral springs bubble up from the ground at temperatures well above 104 °F (40 °C), and the main one produces more than 300,000 gallons (1.3 million liters) a day. According to an embellished <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="legend" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legend" data-type="MW">legend</a> based on a story told by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-of-Monmouth" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Geoffrey of Monmouth</a>, it was King <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lear-legendary-English-king" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Lear</a>’s father, Bladud, who inadvertently discovered the healing properties of the hot springs. Packed off to tend pigs on his own because he had contracted <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/leprosy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">leprosy</a>, he saw that his charges loved wallowing in the water, tried it himself, and was cured.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The spring at Bath was known to the pre-Roman Celtic people of Britain, and it was presided over by the Celtic goddess Sulis. When the Romans arrived, they called the site Aquae Sulis, “waters of Sulis,” and created a spa that became famous throughout the Roman world. It included a colonnaded temple to the goddess of wisdom, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Minerva-Roman-goddess" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Minerva</a>, with whom the Romans identified Sulis. The bathing complex was unusually <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="extravagant" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/extravagant" data-type="EB">extravagant</a> in its use of hot water. The facilities were gradually enlarged to accommodate the numbers of pilgrims who traveled from afar, and the complex remained in use until the fourth or fifth century, when <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saxon-people" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Saxons</a> gained control of the area. The bather would progress through the tepidarium, or warm room, and then through a set of increasingly hot baths (caldarium) to a bracing plunge in the cold <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/bath-plumbing" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">bath</a> (frigidarium) and finally a wallow in the warm, steamy water of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Bath-Mohenjo-daro" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Great Bath</a>.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">With four steps along all four sides, the Great Bath in its impressive hall was a place for meeting and chatting as well as bathing. People could stroll along the paved floor around the pool, and there were <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="niches" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/niches" data-type="MW">niches</a> in the walls for sitting and watching the bathers without getting splashed. The baths were abandoned after the Romans withdrew from Britain, but the complex was excavated from the 1870s on. It is below the modern street level, and the Great Bath today is open to the sky and visible from the street. During much of the 20th century people occasionally swam in the Great Bath, but bathing there was closed to the public after 1978, when a bather died from an amoeba-borne illness that she contracted from the water. The Roman Baths were a factor in Bath’s being inscribed as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/UNESCO" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">UNESCO</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/World-Heritage-site" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">World Heritage site</a> in 1987.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/richard-cavendish/12845623">Richard Cavendish</a></span> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":2226192,"pageLength":413,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"MEDIUM","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Roman Baths | History, Description, & Facts | Britannica