The Treasures of the Roman Baths

The city of Bath got its name from the Roman Baths, its famous landmark and one of the ancient world's most renowned religious spas.

The people of Roman Britain built this around 2,000 years ago and regularly visited the site to worship the goddess Sulis Minerva (the original Roman name of this place was Aquae Sulis) and bathe in the natural thermal springs, which were believed to have healing properties.

As Roman authority faded from Britain in the early 5th century, the baths fell into disuse. The great complex, once a bustling focal point of city life, was gradually abandoned. Over time, silt and debris covered the ruins. Buildings from later periods rose above the site, largely unaware of the treasures that lay beneath their foundations.

It wasn’t until the 18th century that the Baths began to re-emerge. Early excavations uncovered parts of the structure and by the 19th century, significant Victorian efforts revealed the scale and splendour of what had once stood there. The rediscovery of the Great Bath and the elaborate temple pediment captured the imagination of the public and scholars alike.

Today, visitors go to Bath to see this heritage attraction. Though it is no longer used for bathing, the site offers a richly immersive experience, complete with reconstructions, projections and multilingual guides. One can walk around, view original artefacts, and explore the temple ruins all within steps of modern Bath’s thriving city centre. Most of the structures are below the modern street level, beneath adjacent streets and squares.

By looking at the map handed to us by our guide, along with our entrance tickets and headsets, I already knew we would not have enough time to see everything in detail. It is such an expansive complex!

We decided to concentrate on the four main features – the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House, and Finds from the Roman Bath.

As we ascended The Terrace overlooking The Great Bath, we saw statues of Roman leaders lining up the corridors. The view from this vantage point is the most photographed one and is featured in most postcards, so it was here where I also took most of our posed shots. I even saw costumed characters walking about and posing for pictures, so I had one taken with a guy dressed up as a Roman pagan priest, both of us with outstretched hands as if to give some sort of Roman blessing. Well, why not play the part?

We were able to adequately look at other interesting artefacts despite our time constraint – the sculpture of the goddess Minerva’s head and the Haruspex Stone (a haruspex is a special kind of priest with the special power to advise on omens) at the Temple Courtyard, Roman coins thrown into the Sacred Spring as offerings to the goddess, curses carved on rolled up sheets made of lead or pewter that were also thrown into the spring and are still there today, and ancient spa paraphernalia.

My favorite was the museum collection of objects found there that depicted the lifestyle of Bath’s inhabitants and visitors in the Roman times, including a stone head of a lady with a very curious hairstyle swept towards the face. It was apparently very fashionable in the 1st century.

The archaeological finds from the site are remarkable, not only for their number and historical significance, but also for the insights they provide on Roman beliefs and values.

However, the site is also an engineering marvel as evidenced by the intricate heating system, including a network of flues and raised floors that allowed hot air to circulate through the bath chambers. This is truly a testament to the innovation of Roman design.

Our last stop was the gift shop that boasted of unique objects that cannot be found anywhere else. I made it my quest to find out what they were. While I did find rare items such as Roman-themed board games and home décor, as well as Jane Austen-inspired products, the rest were pretty common souvenir wares with the Bath stamp on them. They also sold beauty and wellness products exclusively distributed by the resident spa, Thermae Bath Spa. My husband bought some puzzle sets and board games, a coffee table book, and of course, magnets.

On my mental list, I made a note of someday doing a “spa trip” in Bath. I would spend more time to tour the Roman Baths extensively, have a two-hour therapy treatment at Thermae Bath Spa, and enjoy a cup of tea and a sconce, or an elegant dinner at The Pump Room, a striking Georgian salon where hot water spa is drawn for drinking.

I heard that the perfect way to end an aristocratic meal in this fancy restaurant is to take a sip of the 43-mineral curative Bath water from its exquisite fountain…but I also heard that this water tastes horrible. This reminds me of the Buckley's Cough Syrup slogan, "It tastes awful. And it works."