Spa
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.
[5] Spa therapies have existed since the classical times when taking bath with water was considered as a popular means to treat illnesses.
[citation needed] Archaeological investigations near hot springs in France and Czech Republic revealed Bronze Age weapons and offerings.
Forms of ritual purification existed among the Arabs, Persians, Ottoman Turks, Native Americans, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
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.
At Serangeum, an early Greek balneum (bathhouse, loosely translated), bathing chambers were cut into the hillside from which the hot springs issued.
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.
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.
Roman Catholic Church officials even banned public bathing in an unsuccessful effort to halt syphilis epidemics from sweeping Europe.
[7] People continued to seek out a few select hot and cold springs, believed to be holy wells, to cure various ailments.
[12] 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.
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.
The various social and economic classes selected specific seasons during the year's course, staying from one to several months, to vacation at each resort.
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.
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 buildings were usually separated by function — with the Trinkhalle, the bathhouse, the inhalatorium (for inhaling the vapors), and the Kurhaus or Conversationhaus as the center of social activity.
Baden-Baden featured golf courses and tennis courts, "superb roads to motor over, and drives along quaint lanes where wild deer are as common as cows to us, and almost as unafraid".
Enormous bathhouses came later in the 19th century as a renewed preference for an elaborate bathing ritual to cure ills and improve health became popular.
[7] European spas provided various other diversions for guests after the bath, including gambling, horse racing, fishing, hunting, tennis, skating, dancing, golf, sight-seeing, theatrical performances, and horseback riding.
By the 1760s, British colonists were traveling to hot and cold springs in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia in search of water cures.
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.
After the Civil War, spa vacations became very popular as returning soldiers bathed to heal wounds and the American economy allowed more leisure time.
Bathing in and drinking the warm, carbonated spring water only served as a prelude to the more interesting social activities of gambling, promenading, horse racing, and dancing.
[7][27][28] 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.
[citation needed] When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was governor of New York, he pushed for a European type of spa development at Saratoga.
Four additional buildings composed the recreation area and housed arcades and a swimming pool decorated with blue faience terra-cotta tile.
Saratoga Spa State Park's Neoclassical buildings were laid out in a grand manner, with formal perpendicular axes, solid brick construction, and stone and concrete Roman-revival detailing.
The spa was surrounded by a 1,200-acre (4.9 km2) natural park that had 18 miles (29 km) of bridle paths, "with measured walks at scientifically calculated gradients through its groves and vales, with spouting springs adding unexpected touches to its vistas, with the tumbling waters of Geyser Brook flowing beneath bridges of the fine roads.
Promotional literature advertised the attractions directly outside the spa: shopping, horse races, and historic sites associated with revolutionary war history.
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.
