Spa
A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to prehistoric times. Spa towns, spa resorts, and day spas are popular worldwide, but are especially widespread in Europe and Japan.
Etymology
The term is derived from the town of Spa, Belgium, whose name in Roman times was Aquae Spadanae. The term is sometimes incorrectly attributed to the Latin word spargere, meaning to scatter, sprinkle, or moisten.During the medieval era, illnesses caused by iron deficiency were treated by drinking chalybeate. In 1326, ironmaster Collin le Loup discovered the treatment. The water was sourced from a spring called Espa, the Walloon word for "fountain".
In 16th-century England, the old Roman ideas of medicinal bathing were revived in towns like Bath. In 1596, William Slingsby, who had been to Spa, Belgium, discovered a chalybeate spring in Yorkshire. He built an enclosed well at what became known as Harrogate, the first resort in England for drinking medicinal waters. In 1596, Timothy Bright, after discovering a second well, called the resort The English Spaw, beginning the use of the word Spa as a generic description.
It is commonly claimed, in a commercial context, that the word is an acronym of various Latin phrases, such as salus per aquam or sanitas per aquam, meaning "health through water". The derivation does not appear before the early 21st century. It is likely a backronym as it does not match the known Roman name for the location.
History
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
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, 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.The Romans emulated many of the Greek bathing practices. Romans surpassed the Greeks in the size and complexity of their baths, due to the larger size and population of Roman cities, the availability of running water following the building of aqueducts, and the invention of cement, which made building large edifices easier, safer, and cheaper. As in Greece, the Roman bath became a focal center for social and recreational activity. As the Roman Empire expanded, the concept of the public bath spread to all parts of the Mediterranean and into regions of Europe and North Africa. With the construction of the aqueducts, the Romans had enough water not only for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses, but also for leisurely pursuits. The aqueducts provided water that was later heated for use in the baths. Today, the extent of the Roman bath is found at ruins and in archaeological excavations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
The Romans also developed baths in their colonies, taking advantage of the natural hot springs occurring in Europe to construct baths at Aix and Vichy in France, Bath and Buxton in England, Aachen and Wiesbaden in Germany, Baden, Austria, and Aquincum in Hungary, among other locations. These baths became centers for recreational and social activities in Roman communities. Libraries, lecture halls, gymnasiums, and formal gardens became part of some bath complexes. In addition, the Romans used the hot thermal waters to relieve their suffering from rheumatism, arthritis, and overindulgence in food and drink. The decline of the Roman Empire in the west, beginning in AD 337 after the death of Emperor Constantine, resulted in Roman legions abandoning their outlying provinces and leaving the baths to be taken over by the local population or destroyed.
The Roman bathing ritual included undressing, bathing, sweating, receiving a massage, and resting. Each procedure required separated, purpose-built rooms. The segregation of the sexes and the additions of diversions not directly related to bathing also had direct impacts on the shape and form of bathhouses. The elaborate Roman bathing ritual and its resultant architecture served as precedents for later European and American bathing facilities. Formal garden spaces and opulent architectural arrangement equal to those of the Romans reappeared in Europe by the end of the 18th century. Major American spas followed suit a century later.
Bathing in medieval times
With the decline of the Roman Empire, the public baths often became places of licentious behavior, and such use was responsible for the spread rather than the cure of diseases. A general belief developed among the European populace was that frequent bathing promoted disease and sickness. Medieval church authorities encouraged this belief and made every effort to close down public baths. Ecclesiastical officials believed that public bathing created an environment open to immorality and disease. Roman Catholic Church officials even banned public bathing in an unsuccessful effort to halt syphilis epidemics from sweeping Europe. Overall, this period represented a time of decline for public bathing.People continued to seek out a few select hot and cold springs, believed to be holy wells, to cure various ailments. In an age of religious fervor, the benefits of the water were attributed to God or one of the saints. In 1326, Collin le Loup, an ironmaster from Liège, Belgium, discovered the chalybeate springs of Spa, Belgium. Around these springs, a famous health resort eventually grew and the term "spa" came to refer to any health resort located near natural springs. During this period, individual springs became associated with the specific ailment that they could allegedly benefit.
Great bathhouses were built in Byzantine centers such as Constantinople and Antioch, 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. The Church also built public bathing facilities that were separate for both sexes near monasteries and pilgrimage sites. Popes situated baths within church basilicas and monasteries since the early Middle Ages. 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. Public bathing and spas were common in medieval Christendom in larger towns and cities such as Paris, Regensburg, and Naples.
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.
In the English coastal town of Scarborough in 1626, Elizabeth Farrow discovered a stream of acidic water running from one of the cliffs to the south of the town. This was deemed to have beneficial health properties and gave birth to Scarborough Spa. Dr Wittie's book about the spa waters, published in 1660, attracted a flood of visitors to the town. Sea bathing was added to the cure, and Scarborough became Britain's first seaside resort. The first rolling bathing machines for bathers are recorded on the sands in 1735.