Insight Guides Great Breaks Bath

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight Guides
• ISBN:
  9781786718440
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Pocket-sized books to inspire youron-foot exploration of the best of the British Isles. Now with free eBook.Explorethe best of Bath withthis indispensably practical Insight Guides Great Breaks book. From making sure you don't miss out on must-seeattractions like the Roman Baths, to discovering hidden gems, including PriorPark, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking routes will save you time, helpyou plan, and enhance your Great Break in Bath.· Practical,pocket-sized and packed with inspirational insider information, this is theideal on-the-move companion to your trip to Bath· Features ten detailedwalking tour itineraries, including the ancient centre and modern spa andStonehenge· Overviewsection features concise insider information covering everything from landscapeand location, to history and culinary highlights· Top Tensection takes you to the heart of your destination, from the Pump Room to PulteneyBridge· Rainy Dayrecommendations offer plenty of options, whatever the weather· Includes an innovativeextra that's unique in the market - all Great Breaks Guidescome with a free eBook· Invaluableitinerary maps and practical Travel Tips section ensure effortless exploration · Inspirationalcolour photography throughoutAbout Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer offull-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishinghigh-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. Weproduce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrasebooks, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs.Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus onhistory and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspireyour next adventure.

Tour 1: The ancient centre and a modern spa

This walk in the heart of the city is about a third of a mile (0.5km) long and can be done in less than an hour, but you could happily spend a full day taking in all the highlights.

Highlights

The Roman Baths

The Pump Room

Bath Abbey

Sally Lunn’s

Thermae Bath Spa

This tour takes you through Bath’s 2,000-year history from the Roman Baths, via the Medieval Abbey and the Pump Room, to a modern spa complex, where you can swim in the natural thermal waters.

Bath Abbey as seen from inside the Roman Bath complex.

iStock

Bath’s most popular visitor attraction, the Roman Baths, is the ideal place to start both geographically and historically, as this is where the Bath we know today began. The Romans invaded Britain in AD43 and, after discovering the healing waters, they developed a city called Aquae Sulis, which included a bathing complex and temple. The surviving parts of that 2,000-year-old structure can be viewed alongside recreations of what it was like to be a Roman in Bath two millennia ago. Most of the complex is Victorian but much work has been done recently to improve the facilities, with modern techniques used to bring the past to life. You should set aside at least two hours to get the most out of your visit.

The Ancient Centre and a Modern Spa

Roman Baths

The main entrance to the Roman Baths 1 [map] (tel: [phone]; www.romanbaths.co.uk; daily Mar–mid-June and Sept–Oct 9am–6pm, mid-June–Aug 9am–10pm, Nov–Feb 9.30am–6pm, last entry 1 hour before closing) is in Abbey Church Yard. The baths themselves are below the modern street level and the site also features a Sacred Spring, a Roman Temple, a Roman Bath House and a museum with finds from the Roman Baths. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century.

Gorgon’s Head.

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

You begin your visit in the Victorian reception hall, where you can buy a ticket and pick up a personal audioguide at no extra cost. These informative guides are available in 12 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Russian. There are also separate commentaries aimed at children, featuring Roman characters and their stories, and some of the highlights are described by the writer Bill Bryson in his usual witty and incisive way. In the entrance, formerly a concert hall, the impressive ceiling is decorated with images of the four seasons and surmounted by an elegant dome.

As you walk through to the terrace, you get your first glimpse from above of the magnificent Great Bath, lined with statues of Roman emperors and other leaders. Bryson rightly describes the view from one corner of the terrace, taking in Bath Abbey in the background, as one of the finest in the country. When ready, follow the self-guided tour that leads to ground level.

Sacred Spring

You next pass the King’s Bath, site of the Sacred Spring. Hot water at a temperature of 114°F (46°C) rises here at a rate of 240,000 gallons (1,170,000 litres) per day as it has been doing for thousands of years. In the past this natural phenomenon was beyond human understanding and was believed to be the work of the ancient gods. In Roman times a great Temple was built next to the spring dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva, a deity with healing powers. The mineral-rich water from the Sacred Spring supplied a magnificent bathhouse that attracted visitors from across the Roman Empire. Many of these visitors would have thrown objects into the Sacred Spring as offerings to the goddess, including more than 12,000 Roman coins. Curses, inscribed on pewter or lead sheets, also abound, some written backwards. These generally solicit help or revenge for mundane grievances, such as the theft of a glove or napkin ring.

The Great Bath looks particularly special at night when it’s lit by torches.

iStock

The temple

You next encounter one of only two truly classical temples known from Roman Britain and the place where the cult statue of the goddess Sulis Minerva was housed. The great ornamental pediment survives and has been re-erected in the Roman Baths Museum. Its centrepiece is the image of a fearsome head carved in Bath stone, thought to be the Gorgon’s Head, a powerful symbol of Sulis Minerva.

Discovery of Great Bath

The Great Bath was discovered by chance in the 1880s by Charles Davis, the city surveyor and architect, while he was investigating the cause of hot-water floods in local cellars. The Victorians were as excited by archaeology and the past as the Georgians had been indifferent and his discovery was greeted by enormous interest throughout Britain and led to the excavation of the site and the construction of the current Roman Baths facilities.

The temple courtyard houses the stunning gilded bronze head of Minerva, one of the best-known objects from Roman Britain and one of the museum’s highlights. The bronze, minus helmet (you can see the rivet holes where this would have been held in place), was discovered in 1727 by workmen in nearby Stall Street and was the first intimation of the marvellous Roman ruins below Georgian Bath. The head is probably from a statue of the deity, which would have stood within her Temple beside the Sacred Spring.

The Roman Baths houses a museum collection of outstanding quality and international significance. Many of the objects in the museum tell us about the people who lived and worked in the area and those who visited the spa and temple. This area includes film projections of Roman characters to give visitors a sense of how the Romans lived and worshipped.

Before moving on to the Great Bath, you get a glimpse of the Roman plumbing and drainage system, which is still largely in place and shows the ingenuity of the Roman engineers. Lead pipes were used to carry hot spa water around the site using gravity flow. The Spring overflow is where surplus water from the Spring flows out to a Roman drain, which carries all the spa water from the site to the River Avon 1,300ft (400m) away.

The gilded bronze head of the goddess Sulis Minerva.

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

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