The Romans started the development of Aquae Sulis as a sanctuary of rest and relaxation some time after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. Over the next three decades, they built a reservoir, a sophisticated series of baths and a temple dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva around the natural hot springs. The temple was constructed around 60-70 AD, and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years.
But after the first Roman withdrawal in the first decade of the fifth century,the bathing complex fell into serious despair and was eventually lost to silting and flooding. The vaulted building around the spring collapsed into the waters in the sixth or seventh century, but the oak piles that were sunk into the mud continue to provide an integral part of the stable foundations today.
The various street level aspects of the Roman Baths, The Grand Pump Room and the Stall Street entrance were designed in the 18th century by Thomas Baldwin and John Palmer, two of the leading architects of Georgian Bath.
Throughout the 18th and early 19th century, visitors flocked to fashionable, genteel Bath from far and wide to drink the mineral-rich spring waters and socialise in the Grand Pump Room, the neo-classical soon within the Roman Baths complex.
Both the Pump Room (which remains in use as a tea room and restaurant today) and the Roman Baths fortunately offer a far friendlier, more accessible welcome to contemporary visitors, centuries on – and the complex still remains very much a fully functioning, sparkling jewel in the city’s crown.
Open daily
The Roman Baths, Abbey Church Yard, Bath, BA1 1LZ
Tel: 01225477785
Web: romanbaths.co.uk
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