Few cities can boast a history as long or as illustrious as that of Bath in Somerset. The warm, healing spring waters feeding the ancient baths that have given the city its name have insured its significance for millennia. From the primordial mists of time until the present day, discover Bath’s fascinating story and what makes the city worthy of its UNESCO World Heritage Site status. 

Ancient Bath 

Bath is nestled within a truly ancient area of human habitation. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that people have lived in and around the area now occupied by the city since at least the late Stone Age. A monument from the Iron Age, Solsbury Hill, is still visible today.

According to legend, long before the Romans came, the city of Bath and its healing waters was founded by Bladud, a 9th-century BC king who was cured of leprosy by bathing at the site.

The first century AD brought the coming of the Romans, and with them, the building of the city’s original bath complex. The Romans built their bath over a hot spring, the site of which had previously been occupied by a Celtic shrine to the water Goddess Sulis. Despite the loss of her shrine, Sulis’s influence on the area was preserved in the Roman name for the town that later became Bath, Aquae Sulis (Waters of Sulis). The Romans also enclosed the city inside a defensive stone wall, sections of which still stand today.

Medieval Bath 

As their once-mighty empire crumbled, the Romans slowly began withdrawing to Italy, until finally, in 411, they abandoned Britain altogether. A turbulent period followed during which Bath fell into a state of disrepair. It was during this time that the city was thought to have been the location of the Battle of Badon, a legendary victory for the Britons led by King Arthur over the invading Anglo-Saxons.

Thanks to the pull of its healing waters Bath continued to attract people and money, and as the centuries passed, the city was gradually rebuilt. During the 12th-century, construction began on what remains the Gothic jewel of this architectural crown of a city: Bath Abbey. If the abbey’s ornate spires and intricate façade appear suspiciously immaculate for a building of its age that’s because the building has undergone numerous refits and restorations, the last and most extensive of which took place in the 1860s.

Early Modern Bath

As the Renaissance caught Europe in a flurry of artistic and intellectual rediscovery, Bath experienced a reawakening of its own. The city’s rebuilt and expanded baths restored its reputation as a spa town and began attracting aristocrats and members of fashionable society. This regained reputation received a further boost from the 17th-century work of Thomas Guidott, A discourse of Bathe, and the hot waters there. Also, Some Enquiries into the Nature of the water, which publicised and sought to explain the healing qualities of Bath’s spring waters.  

Fascination with the classical past continued into the Enlightenment, during which Bath underwent another great period of reconstruction. John Wood the Elder and his son, John Wood the Younger, were chief among the Georgian architects who embellished Bath’s cityscape with neo-classical palatial grandeur and geometric proportions, setting Enlightenment rationality in the sun-blazing-behind-a-cloud gold-tinted white of the local limestone. Many buildings from the era that still stand including Pulteney Bridge, the Royal Crescent, and the flamboyant Beckford’s Tower.

The city’s luxurious new look attracted even greater numbers of the famous and well-to-do. For a time, Bath enjoyed the status of being the UK’s most fashionable destination. Famous residents of the period included Jane Austin, who arguably remains the most well-known of the city’s historical occupants. The Jane Austen Centre in Bath now celebrates her life.

Present day Bath

Thanks to the city’s long, rich, and well-preserved past, which was officially acknowledged by UNESCO in 1987, Bath remains a hugely popular tourist destination. In addition to the city’s baths, abbey, and other stunning historic architectural treasures, visitors can also enjoy the past inside Bath’s diverse selection of museums. 

Many also claim that, as well as physical remains, Bath is also home to a significant number of supernatural remnants of its vibrant history. The city has a reputation for being among the most haunted in the UK. Well known ghostly residents include the spectre of a monk who spends his nights chanting in Sally Lunn’s café and the spooky Grey Lady, the resident ghost of The Theatre Royal.

If you enjoy exploring historical sites then be sure to have a read of our guide to the ancient historic sites of Devon, another area of the UK that’s teeming with fascinating vestiges of our bygone past.