© EHTTA - Directed by: Marie Thomas-Penette
In Bath, in the United Kingdom, the thermal baths had a rural birth. Legend has it that, in the 9th century B.C., Prince Bladud discovered through the pigs bathing there, that the hot water that surfaced in the middle of the countryside healed skin conditions and thus the leprosy he contracted on his return from Athens. Worship of the Celtic goddess Sulis, which the Romans identified with Minerva, would give rise to a thermal complex on which the cathedral would be built. However, from the 18th century, the grassland surrounding the springs, thermal establishments and leisure areas gave way to parks and promenades for society. The town has a considerable amount of cultural heritage whose utopian architecture and urban development dates principally from the Georgian era. Its museums, arcades, festivals, events and cultural tours make Bath a town whose Baths were known all over the world, but so too are its scientific innovations and literary glory, as well as its architectural and artistic advances.
Bath
THEY WERE THERE...
“They arrived in Bath. Catherine was all eager delight; her eyes were here, there, everywhere, as they approached its fine and striking environs, and afterwards drove through those streets which conducted them to the hotel. She was come to be happy, and she felt happy already. They were soon settled in comfortable lodgings in Pultney Street.”
Jane Austen, Author
“We all got safe to Bath (thank God) this morning about ten o'clock, to the Castle Inn, where we made a second breakfast, and there also dined, supped and slept...After breakfasting at Bath we took a walk over the city till dinner to show Nancy the public rooms etc, she (his niece) being never in Bath before - gave for seeing them one shilling. We had very good accomodation at our inn.”
Reverend James Woodforde, Author
“Since my arrival in Bath I have, in spite of a fresh cold, slept very well, without any interruption from the asthma. I drink moderately of the water, ride out every day on the downs, eat like a horse, and if I could recover a little flesh I should think myself already cured; but the truth is I am thinner than when I saw you, and begin to be afraid of looking in the glass of a morning.”
Tobias Smollett, Poet and Author