Roman Baths of Bath (Aquae Sulis): Temple and Hot Springs

The Roman Baths at Bath were built around Britain’s only true hot springs, at a town the Romans called Aquae Sulis, “the waters of Sulis”. From around AD 60–70 they created a classical temple to the goddess Sulis Minerva and a large bathing complex fed by the sacred spring. Rediscovered from the 18th century onwards, the site is now one of the best-preserved Roman bathing and religious complexes in northern Europe.

The sacred spring

Hot water rises at Bath at about 46°C, with well over a million litres flowing each day from the main spring alone. The water is rain that fell on nearby hills thousands of years ago, sank deep into the earth, was heated and rose again along a fault.

Long before the Romans arrived, the local Britons regarded the spring as sacred and linked it to a goddess called Sulis. Coins of the Iron Age have been found in the spring. After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, the newcomers identified Sulis with Minerva, their goddess of wisdom and crafts, and worshipped her as Sulis Minerva. This merging of local and Roman gods was common across the empire.

The temple

The temple, probably begun in the AD 60s or 70s, stood on a high podium in a walled courtyard, in the classical style of a Mediterranean city. It was one of only two classical temples of this kind known in Roman Britain.

Its pediment carried a striking carved face, often called the Gorgon’s head. Unlike the snake-haired female Gorgon of Greek myth, it is a fierce male face with flowing hair and moustache, perhaps blending the Gorgon with a Celtic water god. The courtyard held a great sacrificial altar, and an inscribed statue base names Lucius Marcius Memor, a haruspex, a priest who read omens from the entrails of sacrificed animals.

In 1727 workmen digging a sewer in Stall Street found a gilded bronze head of Sulis Minerva, probably from the temple’s cult statue. It is one of the finest pieces of Roman bronze sculpture found in Britain.

The baths

Next to the temple, the Romans enclosed the spring in a reservoir and channelled its water into a series of baths. The centrepiece was the Great Bath, a large pool about 1.6 metres deep, lined with 45 sheets of lead mined in the nearby Mendip Hills. It was later covered by a huge vaulted roof.

Around it were smaller pools and a suite of heated rooms in the usual Roman sequence of warm, hot and cold baths. The complex was rebuilt and extended many times between the 1st and 4th centuries. It drew visitors from across the province and beyond, as inscriptions and tombstones of soldiers and civilians show. Bath was modest beside the great imperial baths of Rome, such as the later Baths of Caracalla, but it was among the most important sites in Roman Britain.

The curse tablets

The most remarkable finds came from the sacred spring itself. About 130 curse tablets, small sheets of lead or pewter, were recovered, most of them in excavations led by Barry Cunliffe in 1979–1980. People scratched messages to the goddess on them, rolled them up and threw them into the water.

Almost all deal with theft, often of clothing stolen while the owner was bathing, and ask Sulis Minerva to punish the thief, sometimes naming suspects. They are written in Latin, though two may be in a British Celtic language. Together they are a rare record of the names, worries and everyday language of ordinary people in Roman Britain. In 2014 they were added to the UK Memory of the World register.

Decline and rediscovery

After Roman rule in Britain ended in the early 5th century (see the end of Roman Britain), the buildings decayed and the site gradually filled with mud. In the Middle Ages the King’s Bath was built over the sacred spring, and Bath became a famous spa again in the 17th and 18th centuries, when fashionable society came to drink and bathe in the waters.

The Roman remains came to light piece by piece. The bronze head of Sulis Minerva was found in 1727, and parts of the temple pediment were discovered in 1790 during construction of the Pump Room. From the late 1870s the city architect Major Charles Davis uncovered the Great Bath, and the Victorian terrace and statues around it were added in the 1890s. Excavations continued through the 20th century.

Bath today

The Roman Baths are now a major museum attracting around a million visitors a year in normal years. Bath was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, and in 2021 it was also included in the “Great Spa Towns of Europe” listing.

Public bathing in the spring water at Bath was stopped in 1978, after a young swimmer died from an infection caused by an amoeba in the water. Since 2006 the Thermae Bath Spa has allowed people to bathe in treated water from the same springs.

Timeline

• Iron Age: Britons treat the hot spring as sacred to the goddess Sulis.
• AD 43: Roman invasion of Britain.
• c. AD 60–70: Temple of Sulis Minerva and first baths are built.
• 2nd–4th centuries AD: The baths are repeatedly enlarged and roofed.
• Early 5th century: Roman rule ends and the site decays.
• 1727: Gilded bronze head of Sulis Minerva is found.
• Late 1870s: Charles Davis uncovers the Great Bath.
• 1979–1980: Excavation of the sacred spring recovers most of the curse tablets.

Why it matters

Aquae Sulis shows how Roman and British religion merged around a natural wonder. Its temple, baths and curse tablets bring Roman Britain vividly to life, and the spring that drew worshippers 2,000 years ago still flows today.