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The Dark And Smelly Ages, History of Spas

By Jeff Sliger

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 09Dec2007 Word count: 477 Viewed: 345 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Believe it or not the rise of Christianity was also the decline of the bathing culture. You can't really blame the Christians though since by this time the baths had fallen from their place of the healthy lifestyle to true dens of iniquity. The Dark Ages were not only dark, they also smelled pretty bad.

With the fall of the Roman Empire bathing was officially banned. Spiritual cleansing was deemed more important than the medicinal bath. Some of the bath complexes themselves were converted to churches while some of the elite aristocrat class could still take advantage of taking the waters. The general population became adverse to going anywhere near the water. It was not uncommon for people to go for years without bathing. Makes you glad you didn't live back then doesn't it.

From the 13th century on, the baths began gradually to come back into favor. As the Moors began to spread their influence across Europe the public baths were rebuilt and once again the medicinal value of the bath as well as for relaxation came back into vogue.

Fear of disease and a lack of understanding about how it was spread led to another decline of the public baths in the 16th century. However some Italian doctors found some of the lost texts on ancient medical treatments and the therapeutic value of the water. By the end of the 1500's two of them Bacci and Minardo had published articles revisiting the value of the bath for sound healthy living. Bacci believed that in order to truly benefit a person needed to be able to to lead a quiet orderly life in pleasant surroundings with good food and wine. Unfortunately that ruled out most of the population since they had neither the time for leisure or the money for the other ingredients.

At the turn of the 19th century, spas were being rediscovered and the bathing culture again grew to include more of the masses. Doctors were convinced that Mother Nature had a remedy for everything that ailed us in the form of some mineral spring. The principles of the medicinal use of thermal water (balneotherapy) and Hydrotherapy were published by Kneipp and Priessnitz. Kneipp took a holistic approach to the treatment of disease. While the spas and resorts focused on serving the wealthy, Kneipp focused his attention on on the common man.

With the interest in mineral waters and the development of hotels at springs were popular all over Europe and North America. Every spa resort had its own village sprout up around it complete with theater, casino and promenades alongside the bathing facility. The spa resorts became the place to be and be seen for the elite and a place for the artists to get their creative juices flowing. Baden Baden, Germany became the most glamorous spa resort in Europe.

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