THE ROMAN BATHS IN BATH - A DEEP DIVE INTO BRITAIN’S ANCIENT HISTORY:
BATH, the famous spa town in Somerset England, has attracted people from near and far for centuries to its healing springs and baths. Today the city is known for its beautiful Georgian architecture and as the destination for the wealthy elite of the 18th and 19th centuries CE. The rich and powerful visited the beautiful city to drink the warm, strange tasting water, but the use of the hot spring water also has a much older history.
In the center of the UNESCO world heritage city, you can visit the Romans Baths. Here you can learn about how the hot spring was worshiped and utilized by the Romans who conquered Britain in 43 CE. The Romans constructed a temple and bath complex in honor of Sulis Minerva, a Romano-Celtic composite of Sulis, the Celtic goddess of the healing and sacred water, and Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. In a few decades, the city of Aquae Sulis emerged around the bath complex as one of the most important spa and pilgrimage sites in the western part of the Roman Empire. Visiting the once-forgotten Roman Baths will give you insight into the ancient city’s long history, and it is also one of the places in England where you can learn a lot about life, religion, and changes in the society of Roman Britain.