The Roman Baths

Why go

The hot spring ties the ancient site to the city you see above it. Move from the open Great Bath to the Sacred Spring and the museum, where the gilt bronze head of Sulis Minerva makes Roman worship tangible. The complex gives you more than a photo of a pool: it shows how bathing, religion and engineering shared one place.

What to look for

• The Great Bath sits below the level of today's surrounding streets.
• The gilt bronze head of Sulis Minerva was found near the spring.
• Remains of the hypocaust show how the bathing rooms were heated.

The full story

Bath's thermal spring was a sacred place as well as a source of water. The Romans built a temple and bathing complex around it, bringing worship of Sulis Minerva together with public bathing. That pairing explains why the museum contains more than bath fittings. Coins and other objects were placed in the Sacred Spring as offerings, and the bronze head of the goddess gives a face to the cult centered here. The Roman remains lie below the present streets. Look beyond the open pool to the surviving heated rooms: the hypocaust remains show that this was a working bath complex with carefully managed warmth, rather than a single ornamental basin. The route through the spring, temple remains, bathing spaces and finds makes those different functions easier to connect.

Useful to know

• Allow around two hours for the baths and museum rather than treating the Great Bath as a quick photo stop.
• Combine the visit with Bath Abbey or the Pump Room around Abbey Church Yard.
• The historic bath water is for viewing, not swimming.

Your next visit

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