HISTORY OF SPAS

What is a Spa?
The term originates from the Latin ‘Salus Per Aqua’ which means ‘health through water’, however, we have come to associate the word with the old European spa towns where natural springs, hot or cold, saline or sulphuric, produce endless quantities of natural water. Britons of the Victorian era were famous for travelling widely to ‘take the waters’ of spa towns throughout Europe, including over 100 in the UK, which were believed to have medicinal or healing powers. 

This idea is not new, many of the famous European spa towns were actually put on the map over two thousand years ago during the Roman invasion of Europe, when they took their already advanced bathing culture to those shores. An example being the Emperor Caracalla, who believed the hot springs of Baden Baden in Germany cured his arthritis and where he consequently built one of the finest bathing houses outside Rome. 

We would however be mistaken if we attributed the whole culture of spa bathing to the Romans. Certainly they built bathing houses or spas in great style, but the treatments offered in the modern spa have much wider and indeed older origins. The Middle East provided the origins for the increasingly popular mud bathing, with the mineral rich silt of the Dead Sea having been used for treating skin conditions for many thousands of years. Similarly the Ancient Egyptians valued the healing powers of the mud of the Nile delta, having brought minerals and deposits from the high mountain ranges of Ethiopia. 

Providing the first documentation that a bathing culture existed, Ancient Egypt could arguably be the birthplace of this culture. Cleopatra was of course famed for her love of bathing in ass’s milk to preserve her legendary beauty. 

The need to cleanse the body and hence to beautify is the timeless message of the spa, with relaxation being a by-product associated with more modern generations whose hectic and pressured lifestyles demand that stress is something to be managed and relaxation time planned. The origins of the Sauna lie in the need to cleanse the body, although the health benefits now known to be associated with this form of bathing have come to be realised only in the past 40 years as medical science has researched more deeply into blood pressure related illnesses and the desire to find alternative, non drug based cures has increased. 

Finland is credited with the birth place of the sauna, although the whole of the frozen north of Europe is now known to have had similar forms of bathing, for example the Russian Banya, which is almost identical in design and purpose to the Finnish Sauna. The sauna started life as a timber clad pit in the ground, where logs were burned to heat large stones, as the logs burned out the stones retained their heat and once the smoke from the burnt logs disappeared, the users would sit in the cabin and sweat. As the occupant became hotter they would leave the cabin, sweating profusely and use the snow outside to wipe off the sweat and dirt form the skin. Repeating the process a number of times as the need to be clean dictated. Hence the renowned practice of ‘rolling in snow’ after bathing in the sauna. Of course, the origins have more practical roots, as water was in short supply in the frozen winters of the north!

The Ottoman empire gave birth to the Hamam, or Turkish Bath as it is known by many. Once again using sweating as a form of cleansing, the traditional Hamam has religious origins with a visit preceding a visit to the Mosque. The old Hamams of Istanbul have beautiful interiors with fantastic examples of traditional Muslim ceramic and mosaic art with inscriptions from the Koran often being present on the walls. However, fine examples of Hamams also exist in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

The heat source and form of bathing owes something to the Romans, as the Hamam became a meeting place where a large chamber was vaguely subdivided with different areas at different temperatures, offering the ability to sweat or just relax and talk. However, the chamber was dominated by the hot ‘bellystone’, an octagonal, raised, heated platform, where the famous soap massage was performed. Masseurs worked in the Hamam offering their services to the occupants in return for tips. It was usual for the ‘clients’ to wear a ‘pestomal’ or loin cloth for modesty and to be massaged in public, first using a goat hair mitten for exfoliation followed by a thorough washing of the body after which there was a rinsing in alternate temperature water.

The modern spa can offer all these treatments and many more based on massage and meditation with origins in India and the Far East where the culture has given birth to a more ‘hands on’ range of treatments which can be performed in suitably tranquil and spacious treatment rooms which form an essential part of the spa.

Regrettably, like all industries these days, a vocabulary of ‘jargon’ has developed, we attempt to unravel this jargon below and give more meaningful descriptions to the terms applied to the heat experiences offered by the highly specialised manufacturers of thermal experience rooms

The Essential Spa

Sauna – essentially a timber cabin with a heat source radiating warmth from the panelled walls via heated stones. Operating at between 80 and 105grees Celsius. Many versions available, but the most authentic are the Kelo log house saunas replicating the early origins of this form of bathing. 

Sanarium – a revolutionary product derived from the sauna cabin by Klafs of Germany, this cabin is built using traditional sauna techniques, but is operated at lower temperatures of 55 to 70 degrees Celsius and with the introduction of aromatic humidity at up to 50%, bathers can stay longer in the cabin. Medical research has proven regular use of a Sanarium twice a week can reduce hypertension (high blood pressure) on a permanent basis without the use of any drugs.

Steam Bath – Often given a name from the Roman bathing times such as Laconium or Sudatorium, the steam bath should be exactly this, a room of between 42 and 48 degrees Celsius with 100% humidity provided by hot steam. The steam is normally injected with aromatic extracts of essential oils. Whilst acrylic ‘pods’ are available, most spas prefer the quality associated with traditional finishes offered by using ceramics, mosaics and natural stone.

Caldarium – Again from the Roman times, this is a warm ceramic room, with a temperature of 40 – 50 degrees Celsius in which bathers can relax for long periods of time in comfortable ergonomically designed benches or individual, heated loungers. The walls, floors and benches are heated to enable deep penetration of the warmth to the body promoting a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation. Aromas can be introduced via a humidifier to enhance this beneficial treatment.

Hamam – More often than not, constructed with traditional domed cupola in the roof with perforations or lights to replicate the originals of the Ottoman Empire, the modern spa Hamam will normally be of similar size to a steam bath but with the traditional ‘hot stone’ (often replaced with more comfortable, modern alternatives, with height adjustment and built in plumbing and drainage), located in an adjacent room enabling individual clients to receive the soap massage in private. Heated walls, benches and floor with possibly 40% humidity from a steam source give an authentic atmosphere to this room finished in traditional Turkish tiles. The inclusion of a Hamam within a spa offers an income stream from massage.

The Mud Bath – Rasul is the name for a mud bath as manufactured by the German company Haslauer but they are also known as Serails and Cleopatra baths, this treatment is fast becoming an essential experience for every spa. With versions available from two to eight seats, most spas are likely to look to accommodate two or four people, as the treatment dictates it is carried out either naked or wearing disposable underwear. The bathers are each presented with a bowl containing three types of mud for different parts of the body, one for the face, torso and then arms and legs. Impregnated with various grades of salt crystals the application of the mud also provides mild exfoliation. As the bathers apply the mud (or have it applied by a therapist), so the room heats up and becomes steamy as it is essential the mud stays wet on the skin for maximum benefit. It is sometimes a practice for the therapist to remain in the chamber throughout the treatment to instruct the bathers and to create an atmosphere by telling stories from the Arabian Nights. The treatment ends when an automatic shower of tropical rain is operated above each seat to enable the mud to be washed from the bathers. With its Arabian origins it is normal for a mud bath to have interior finishes reminiscent of the colours traditionally found in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Foot Spa – An area considered of little importance by designers who do not understand the functions of the body and the need to equalise temperature before treatments. The foot spa is traditionally an area where warm ceramic or mosaic benches offer a place to relax and be comfortable, whilst bathing the feet in warm (never hot) water. For those who have spent any time in colder climates it will be a familiar feeling of the numbness of your feet associated with a cold morning. This is because the small amount of flesh and fat on the feet, but with large number of blood vessels, allow them to get cold faster than any other part of the body as heat from the blood is lost almost immediately. By the same action, the blood can absorb heat through the feet more quickly than anywhere else, so after heating the body in, for example, the sauna, then cooling it in the ice igloo or plunge pool, guests can then slowly equalise the body temperature by bathing the feet in warm water. Encouraging this practice will prevent guests becoming over heated and moving from one heated room to another without proper periods of relaxation between.

Specialised products are now on the market offering a complete reflexology based massage using whirlpool and air jet technology.

The foot spa is often accompanied by a Kniepp pool in which the treatment discovered in the 1920’s by Father Sebastian Kniepp, a Bavarian monk, enables bathers to walk on pebbles in warm or cold water stimulating the reflexology points in the feet.

Fun Showers – It is essential that showers should be in abundance in the spa, not only are they now present in most treatment rooms, they should be available wherever a heat experience is offered as it is vital that clients should be able to cool down after using one of the hot rooms. There are now a huge variety of showers on offer, either as cold waterfalls, actual buckets released onto the bather at the pull of a lever, body jets and the magnificent ‘Experience Showers’, offering multi sensory experiences by selecting tropical rain to fall warmly from a large diameter head and smelling of mango and papaya whilst activating red and yellow lights, alternatively icy needlejets can be chosen, smelling of mint and menthol whilst bathing the occupant in cool blue light! These ‘tropical’ or ‘arctic’ storms can also be accompanied by thunder and lightening effects.

Plunge Pools – Only for the brave, these traditional pools again stem from the Romans, when it was realised the surge of blood, caused by contracting blood vessels, which had previously expanded in the hot rooms, was indeed a particularly invigorating experience. This practice is now accepted as a beneficial way of increasing blood flow and by regular practice helps to naturally reduce cholesterol levels in arteries and relieving hypertension. Purists would have it that a plunge pool should be barely above freezing point but in reality temperatures of 12 – 20°C are perfectly effective.

Ice Caves and Igloos – For the faint hearted who cannot face the plunge pool, the gentler experience of the cool air associated with the northern extremes can be created by a tiled, domed roof ‘Igloo’ or a ‘cave’ formed in replica rock and maintained at 4-5°C. With an ice fountain inside these rooms, crushed ice can be applied to the limbs gently and selectively to cool the body. The cool air in the rooms allows the lungs and hence the blood to be cooled from within.

Snow Caverns – Using modern techniques to create real snow, there can be nothing more realistic than stepping from a traditional log sauna into a rock faced landscape in which there has been a fresh fall of real snow with which to cool the body. Operating at –15°C, these rooms are only for the brave, but nevertheless are becoming features of the modern spa, as slowly but surely we retrace our steps to provide ever more authentic experiences closer to the origins of the treatments we all now desire.

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