Bath Baths. The picture is taken by the author.
Bath is a small city in the southwest of England, it is beautiful, steeped in history and full of cultural atmosphere, and the whole city is listed as a World Heritage Site. The English word "bath" comes from this small city, because it is a famous "bathing resort" in history.
Thanks to the natural hot spring resources, Bath was famous as early as the Roman rule, also known as the "spa town". Those familiar with history know that the so-called "Empire of the Sun Never Sets" was once invaded by another empire after B.C., the Roman Empire, and became a province of the Roman Empire. In the middle of the first century BC, Caesar, then governor of Gaul, led a Roman army and invaded Britain twice, finally opening the prelude to the Roman conquest of Britain. In the first century AD, claudius, the Roman emperor and "conqueror of Britain", ruled Britain strongly, causing all the tribes to be annexed. Later, with the great achievements of the British governor Agulicola to eliminate the maladministration and Hadrian's construction of the Great Wall, Rome basically established its rule over southern Britain, and British civilization entered the era of civilization from prehistoric times.
In Arthurian legend, Bath was the site where King Arthur defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Baden, but it was not until the Romans discovered the hot springs of the area that it developed into a spa town. For the ancient Romans, bathing was very important and a form of mass communication, equivalent to a Chinese liquor store. If any Roman did not take a bath once a day, he might be rejected. Bath happened to provide a great place for the Romans to socialize. It is said that at that time, Bath had more than one million liters of hot springs per day, and these mineral-rich springs were about forty-six degrees, which was very suitable for bathing. Nowadays, when visitors visit Bath, they can also see the pulleys that the Romans used to build bathhouses, learn how to prevent leakage and even how to check out, etc., and must be impressed by the wisdom of the Romans, as if they have traveled back to two thousand years ago.
The interior of bath baths. The picture is taken by the author.
Bath bath model. The picture is taken by the author.
There are also people who cosplay into Romans. The picture is taken by the author.
With the internal decline of the Roman Empire, Roman rule in Britain also came to an end. Rude Britons did not have any bathing culture, and they did not care about the Bath Baths, and as a result, the baths were silted up and piled up, and it was difficult to sustain. It wasn't until 973 A.D. that Bath was stunned when Edgar, the first king of England, held a coronation ceremony at Bath Abbey.
Bath Abbey is still available for visitors. The picture is taken by the author.
In the eighteenth century, Britain entered the Era of King George, which was typically characterized by the flourishing of culture and art. It was also during this period that Bath was born new. As a famous architect in the Georgian era, John Wood and sons planned and renovated Bath, and built famous buildings such as the Royal Crescent Tower and the Circular Plaza. Among them, the Royal Crescent Tower is composed of thirty interconnected buildings, distributed in the shape of a crescent, hence the name. Decorated in the Italian style, the Crescent Tower has a total of 114 columns, and the roads in front of the building are also distributed in the shape of a crescent, and the elegant arc has earned it the reputation of "britain's noblest street". Today's Crescent Building is partly a hotel, partly a museum used as a display of artifacts, and partly a residence. The circular square is a huge ring of thirty houses, and five hundred and twenty-eight different artistic and scientific emblems and sculptures are distributed on the street houses and stone pillars that stretch across the square, and this masterpiece completed by Wood and his sons in the eighteenth century cannot help but be reminiscent of the mysterious Stonehenge on the Salz Plain, which is very symbolic.
1769 Completed Crescent Square
Crescent Square today. The picture is taken by the author.
With the construction of the city of Bath, bathing culture in Bath finally ushered in the "Renaissance" in the eighteenth century. Inheriting the bathing culture of Rome and under the influence of German spa culture, the British believed that thermal water could cure incurable diseases, so many people went to Bath for "spa". The famous writer of this period, Jane Austen, mentioned this many times in his works, such as Mr. Allen in "Northangjue Temple" who went to Bath for treatment due to gout, and Mrs. Smith in "Persuasion" who came to Bath to treat his lameness - "never go out except to take a hot spring bath". Although these statements are somewhat exaggerated, they also reflect the superstition and fanaticism of people at that time about the treatment of Bath Spa. Jane Austen herself has a deep relationship with the small city of Bath, she has spent many comfortable time in this small city, and the two works of "Northangjue Temple" and "Persuasion" were also completed here.
Portrait of Jane Austen. Graph source network.
Buzz's healing power was so impressive that it was confirmed by doctors. William Oliver, an authoritative physician of the George era, said in the "Practical Treatise on Bath Water" that Bath Spa can treat deafness, auditory hallucinations, rheumatism, stroke, asthma, jaundice, scurvy, palpitations, ulcers, hemorrhoids, paralysis, infertility, plague, leprosy, lymph tuberculosis, headache, epilepsy, gout, itching, scars, eye diseases, convulsions, lameness, hernias, lung diseases and other diseases, which can be said to be "all-purpose pain relief cream".
Today we know that hot spring water, although it is comfortable, does not have as many miraculous effects. Most of the so-called curative effects are also gimmicks made by merchants in order to attract more people to consume. In the 18th century Bath, hot spring water not only did not have many curative effects, but also exaggerated "commercial hype" also easily made people carry a variety of diseases gathered here, many of which are infectious diseases, which are very easy to endanger the life and health of tourists in public baths. Nevertheless, Bath, as a "spa town", is truly revived.
All in all, Bath has a long and interesting history as the UK's only premium spa town. Today, in addition to baths, Bath also has a variety of museums (such as the Costume Museum), schools and other cultural buildings, which is a great place for British tourism. When we go to Bath to wander, we fantasize about the warm spring water flowing slowly from our bodies, reminisce about the spiritual civilization of the whole city, and perhaps have a wonderful feeling of walking in the historical corridors.
Finally, I put a few pictures of the town of Bath that I photographed.