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Spa techniques and technologies: from the past to the present

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Abstract

Thermal waters have been used from ancient times. From those early experiences and the consecutive improvements in the understanding and treatment of these waters, all around the world different cultures and communities have used natural structures or have built facilities for the best use and exploitation of the mineral spring water. Nowadays thermal spas, inheritors of a rich and long tradition from the ancient world, combine classical techniques with innovative proposals. Thus, the introduction and implementation of new technologies in bathtubs, swimming pools, showers, saunas, etc., allow the efficient optimization of thermal techniques and hydrotherapy facilities. Moreover, the development of health tourism offers a new way to understand the use of thermal water, which requires higher quality and specialization of the spa services. Every year thousands of people travel to Europe for a healthy holiday and to improve their welfare and wellbeing. Resorts, spas, thalassotherapy centers and thermal spas that use hot thermal water utilize bath techniques, respiratory applications, pressure techniques, wraps, etc. These techniques use facilities and amenities such as swimming pools, bathtubs, showers, sprays and stoves, among others. One can also find peloids (thermal mud) and any kind of clay and herbal wraps. From the practices developed in Roman times, but especially from the first hydrotherapy techniques described by Priessnitz until today, there have been numerous innovations that have enabled the spas to adapt to the demands and needs of a new type of customer. Nowadays, there are companies specializing in the design and innovation of hydrotherapy that favour the modernization of existing spas or the emergence of new spas. The highlights are control and automation; new materials; design and architecture designed by prestigious architects.

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Notes

  1. As early as the second century AD, medical texts already identified healing spas—natural mineral water baths—(αὐτοφυῶν λουτρῶν) as opposed to common heated common water baths (λουτρόν)—without an adjective—or “artificial baths” (τῶν ἐξ ἐπιτεχνήσεως) (Antilus, in Orib. 10, 3). In this sense, in Roman times, the feminine plural word, aquae (“the waters”), was mainly used to refer to these medicinal mineral waters, as defined by Varro (Ling. 9, 41, 68–69); or, more specifically, aquae calidae, fontes calidi or fontis medicati (analyzed in Mudry 2015, p. 70).

  2. These are mentioned, for instance, by several authors in the compilation made by physician Oribasius (fourth century AD, Collectanae medicinalia), or the well-known works of authors such as Vitruvius (8, 3, 1), Pliny the Elder (31, 1–5) or Seneca (Nat, 3, 20–24), explicitly referring to the mineral formulation of these waters and not just to their temperature, which are linked to the health properties of these springs (s. Oró Fernández 1996 on this topic).

  3. The Roman model, however, was pretty close to what we know today. If we examine the concept developed around thermal sites such as Baia (in the Gulf of Naples) or Bath (in South-West England) (Fig. 2), to name the most representative examples, we cannot find major differences from the image of a European spa around the nineteenth century (Maraver 2006).

  4. In this regard, many religious orders increasingly undertook and started to manage these resources.

  5. See Cressier (2002) on Arab terminology and design of these spas.

  6. The erection of hospitals linked to these mineral springs, such as St. John's in Bath, England (twelfth and thirteenth centuries), in Tripergole, Italy (fourteenth century), or in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal (fifteenth century) with the first water tests, are also proof of this interest.

  7. Particularly remarkable are pioneering publications, especially in the Italian Peninsula: for instance, the well-known works of Pietro di Eboli, who described different mineral water baths and the treatments in Baia in the thirteenth century; or Gentile da Foligno, in the fourteenth century, who wrote about Tuscan baths, thus starting a new literary trend, De Balneis, which were treatises on spas (García Ballester 1998). For a summary of some references on the works on Thermalism from different perspectives and periods, see Gerbod (2004); and more specifically (Guérin-Beauvois and Martin 2007; Nicoud and Boisseuil 2010; Boisseuil 2015).

  8. Analyzed and summarized in Boisseuil (2015) for Italy; or in García Ballester (1998), more generally.

  9. Among others, we can mention the global studies conducted in England by W. Turner in 1568; in France by Cottereau du Closs in 1671; or in Spain, pioneering general works such as the writings of Limón Montero in 1697 or Gómez de Bedoya in 1764–1765.

  10. E.g. Surintendance générale des bains et fontaines du Royaume, created by French king Henri IV in 1605; or Cuerpo de Médicos Directores de Baños in Spain, created by Ferdinand VII in 1816.

  11. As described by Seneca (Epist. 86, 4) writing about the baths of Publius Cornelius Scipio, comparing the habits in second-century-BC baths to contemporary baths in the first century AD.

  12. The most significant examples can be found in some urbs, like in the city of Rome, still partially visible today, such as the Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian; or in other parts of the Empire, like the Baths of Antoninus in the ancient Carthago (Tunisia), or the Imperial Baths in Trier (Germany), among others.

  13. There is a vast bibliography on these facilities, with deep studies both general and specific of the sites identified in the Roman Empire. See the description provided by González Soutelo (2007a, b, 2011) for a summarized review of these facilities.

  14. Roman thermal spas with large pools can be found all over the Empire. Some of the most well-known and monumental, however, are those in Bath (England) and Baia (Italy, first model of spa villa), Hammat-Gader (Israel), Hammam Salehine (Algeria), Néris-les-Bains (France), Caldes de Montbui (Spain) or Chaves (Portugal), among many others.

  15. These were probably conceived to allow bathers to use these waters unhurriedly and to give them the chance to sit and partially submerge in water. See thermal spas above, as well as Badenweiler (Germany), Jebel-Oust (Tunisia) or Aquae Tauri (Civitavecchia, Italy).

  16. Recommendations based, for example, on the patient's full or part immersion in these waters to peacefully benefit from mineral vapors, in a gradual process of adaptation of 21 days, reaching a maximum of 2 h/day in the thermal spa (Herodotus in Orib. X, 5).

  17. See Tölle-Kastenbein (1990) for a specific study on this.

  18. An example of this survival of forms and treatments is documented, for instance, in the medieval bathhouse of Bagno de Vignoli (Nicaud 2015, p. 90) and other Italian examples (Boisseuil 2008). We have very few examples of these infrastructures, as the reutilization of hot springs and later renovations have practically obliterated all evidence in most cases (Boisseuil 2008).

  19. The work of Pietro di Eboli (thirteen century) shows later examples of these structures, an accurate image of the importance of sulphur treatments in the area of Pozzuoli. This use model is still present today in modern spa facilities, such as Baños de Fitero, among others, where steam treatments are conducted in a cave space in the hill next to the spa resort.

  20. Thus, this author mentions that mineral water steam baths are certainly more effective and recommends following the steam bath with an immersion, a Vichy or affusion shower or a sea bath.

  21. As mentioned above, the use and study of these vapors' health properties was frequent in the area of Baia and Naples (Conforti 2015), but also in other areas such as Lipari and, very likely, in Thermopylae (Greece), among others.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende s/n, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    C. P. Gómez Pérez, M. L. Mourelle Mosqueira & J. L. Legido Soto

  2. GEAAT. History, Art and Geography Department, Faculty of History, University of Vigo, Campus As Lagoas, s/n, 32004, Ourense, Spain

    S. González Soutelo

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  1. C. P. Gómez Pérez
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Correspondence to C. P. Gómez Pérez.

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This article is part of the special issue on Sustainable Resource Management: Water Practice Issues.

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Gómez Pérez, C.P., González Soutelo, S., Mourelle Mosqueira, M.L. et al. Spa techniques and technologies: from the past to the present. Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. 5, 71–81 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-017-0136-1

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