thumb|right|200px|The medicinal spa of [[Harkány is supplied by thermal wells that produce high sulfide content chloride water containing sodium-, calcium- and hydrogen carbonate.]]

A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) 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

thumb|The town of [[Spa, Belgium]]

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 (named for its Roman baths). In 1596, William Slingsby, who had been to Spa, Belgium (which he called Spaw), 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

alt=Photograph of the Baths showing a rectangular area of greenish water surrounded by yellow stone buildings with pillars. In the background is the tower of the abbey.|thumb|Ancient [[Roman Baths (Bath)|Roman Baths in Bath, England]]

thumb|[[Byzantine Bath (Thessaloniki)|Byzantine Bath in Thessaloniki]]

thumb|The [[Slatina, Foča|Slatina Spa in Bosnia and Herzegovina]]

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

thumb|220px|The spa town of [[Hisarya in Bulgaria. An ancient Roman city was built in the 1st century AD because of the mineral springs in the vicinity. ]]

thumb|Coriovallum Roman baths in [[Heerlen, the Netherlands (reconstructed)]]

thumb|[[Baths of Alange|Roman Baths of Alange, Extremadura, Spain]]

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 (bathhouse, loosely translated), 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. 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. 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.

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. This revival changed the way of taking a spa treatment. For example, in Karlsbad the accepted method of drinking the mineral water required sending large barrels to individual boardinghouses where the patients drank physician-prescribed dosages in the solitude of their rooms. David Beecher in 1777 recommended that the patients come to the fountainhead for the water and that each patient should first do some prescribed exercises. This innovation increased the medicinal benefits obtained and gradually physical activity became part of the European bathing regimen. In 1797, in England, James Currie published The Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fever and other Diseases.This book, along with numerous local pamphlets on composition of spa water, stimulated additional interest in water cures and advocated the external and internal use of water as part of the curing process.thumb|left|Poster for [[Pierre Vigier|Vigier Baths on the banks of the Seine river, in Paris (1797)]]

Bathing in the 19th and 20th centuries

thumb|250px|A thermal spa ([[Széchenyi thermal bath) in Budapest, Hungary]]

thumb|right|250px|Turkish spa Sina (Hammam) in [[Trenčianske Teplice, Slovakia]]

In the 19th century, bathing became a more accepted practice as physicians realized some of the benefits that cleanliness could provide. A cholera epidemic in Liverpool, England in 1842 resulted in a sanitation renaissance, facilitated by the overlapping hydropathy and sanitation movements, and the implementation of a series of statutes known collectively as "The Baths and Wash-houses Acts 1846 to 1896". The result was increased facilities for bathing and washed clothes, and more people participating in these activities.

In most instances, the formal architectural development of European spas took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. The architecture of Bath, England, developed along Georgian and Neoclassical lines, generally following Palladian structures. The most important architectural form that emerged was the "crescent" — a semi-elliptical street plan used in many areas of England. The spa architecture of Carlsbad, Marienbad, Franzensbad, and Baden-Baden was primarily Neoclassical, but the literature seems to indicate that large bathhouses were not constructed until well into the 19th century. The emphasis on drinking the waters rather than bathing in them led to the development of separate structures known as Trinkhallen (drinking halls) where those taking the cure spent hours drinking water from the springs.

Bathing in colonial America

right|thumb|230px|Gentlemen's Pool House, [[Jefferson Pools, Warm Springs, Virginia, built in 1761, is the oldest spa building in the United States. The spa waters flow through the centre of the building. President Thomas Jefferson bathed here.]]

Some European colonists brought with them knowledge of the hot water therapy for medicinal purposes, and others learned the benefits of hot springs from Native Americans. Europeans acquired the land on which many of the hot and cold springs were situated from various tribes, and altered them to suit European tastes. By the 1760s, British colonists were traveling to hot and cold springs in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia in search of water cures. Among the more frequently visited of these springs were Bath, Yellow, and Bristol Springs in Pennsylvania; and Warm Springs, Hot Springs, and White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia.

Colonial doctors gradually began to recommend hot springs for ailments. Benjamin Rush, American patriot and physician, praised the springs of Bristol, Pennsylvania, in 1773. Samuel Tenney in 1783 and Valentine Seaman in 1792 examined the water of Ballston Spa in New York and wrote of possible medicinal uses of the springs. Hotels were constructed to accommodate visitors to the various springs. Entrepreneurs operated establishments where the travellers could lodge, eat, and drink. Although spa activity had been central to Saratoga in the 1810s, by the 1820s the resort had hotels with great ballrooms, opera houses, stores, and clubhouses.

The Union Hotel, first built in 1803, had its own esplanade, and by the 1820s had its own fountain and formal landscaping, but with only two small bathhouses. As the resort developed as a tourist destination, mineral bathhouses became auxiliary structures and not the central features of the resort, although the drinking of mineral water continued to be common. Although the purpose of the Saratoga and other New York spas were to provide access to mineral waters, their main attraction was a complex social life and cultural cachet. However, the wider audience the resort garnered by the late 1820s began to waver, and in the mid-1830s, as a bid to revive itself, it turned to horse racing.

By the mid-1850s hot and cold spring resorts existed in 20 states. Many of these resorts contained similar architectural features. Most health resorts had a large, two-story central building near or at the springs, with smaller structures surrounding it. The main building provided the guests with facilities for dining, dancing on the first floor, and sleeping rooms on the second. The outlying structures were individual guest cabins, and other auxiliary buildings formed a semicircle or U-shape around the large building.

During the last half of the 19th century, western entrepreneurs developed natural hot and cold springs into resorts — from the Mississippi River to the West Coast. Many of these spas offered individual tub baths, vapor baths, douche sprays, needle showers, and pool bathing to their guests. The various railroads that spanned the country promoted these resorts to encourage train travel. Hot Springs, Arkansas, became a major resort for people from the large metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Chicago.

thumb|250px|[[Ayurveda|Ayurvedic spa in Goa, India]]

Regulation of the industry

The International Spa and Body Wrap Association (ISBWA) is an international association for spas and body wrap centers around the world. The main concern of the ISBWA is the regulation of the industry and the welfare of the consumers. Member organisations are to adhere to the ISBWA code of ethics.

The Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Code (USPSHTC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to govern the installation and inspection of plumbing systems associated with swimming pools, spas and hot tubs as a means of promoting the public's health, safety and welfare.

<gallery mode="packed">

File:Flamingo Spa Vesipuisto.jpg|Flamingo Spa, a part of the Flamingo Entertainment Centre in Vantaa, Finland

File:VarshetsRenovatedSpaCenter.jpg|Spa center in Varshets, Bulgaria

File:Colorful, mirror Fortepan 716.jpg|Spa in Hungary, 1939

File:Ognyanovo-Delta-Hotel-Mineral-water-swimming--pools.jpg|Mineral water swimming pools in Blagoevgrad district, Bulgaria

File:BalnearioAlange.jpg|Balneo area in Alange

File:Spa JPG05.jpg|The casino garden in Spa, Belgium

File:Beltéri gyógymedence Hagymatikum.JPG|Medicinal water bath in Makó, Hungary

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Zwemmen in de vijver bj de waterval TMnr 60050142.jpg|Bathing in Bogor, West Java

File:Mt. Taisetsu KOGEN hot spring 2（Open-air bath）.JPG|Japanese Onsen, in Hokkaido

File:Brooklyn Museum - Bathers - Louis Michel Eilshemius - overall.jpg|Bathers, Louis Michel Eilshemius, (Brooklyn Museum)

File:Palatinus Strandfürdő. Fortepan 78086.jpg|Spa in Hungary, 1939

File:Budapest, Gellért fürdő, hullámfürdő-medence, 4.jpg|Gellért baths in Budapest, Hungary

File:Couples Bath Spa.jpg|alt=Couples Spa Bath|Couple relaxing in Jacuzzi spa

File:Spa-center-in-Andorra.jpg|Modern Spa Center in Andorra la Vella, Andorra

</gallery>

See also

  • Bathing#History
  • Ganban'yoku
  • Jjimjilbang
  • List of spa towns
  • Onsen
  • Peloids
  • Sauna
  • Spa, Belgium, a municipality of Belgium
  • Water cure (therapy)

Notes

Bibliography

  • Nathaniel Altman, Healing springs: the ultimate guide to taking the waters : from hidden springs to the world's greatest spas. Inner Traditions / Bear & Company, 2000. .
  • Dian Dincin Buchman, The complete book of water healing. 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill Professional, 2001. .
  • Jane Crebbin-Bailey, John W. Harcup, John Harrington, The Spa Book: The Official Guide to Spa Therapy. Publisher: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2005. .
  • Esti Dvorjetski, Leisure, pleasure, and healing: spa culture and medicine in ancient eastern Mediterranean., Brill, 2007 (illustrated). .
  • Carola Koenig, Specialized Hydro-, Balneo-and Medicinal Bath Therapy. Publisher: iUniverse, 2005. .
  • Anne Williams, Spa bodywork: a guide for massage therapists. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. .
  • Richard Gassan, The Birth of American Tourism: New York, the Hudson Valley, and American Culture, 1790-1830. University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. .
  • Thomas Chambers, Drinking the Waters: Creating an American Leisure Class at Nineteenth-Century Mineral Springs. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002 (out of print).
  • Charlene Boyer Lewis, Ladies and Gentlemen on Display: Planter Society at the Virginia Springs, 1790-1860. University of Virginia Press, 2001. .
  • International Spa Association Official website