Mineral spas are spa resorts developed around naturally occurring mineral springs. Like seaside resorts, they are mainly used recreationally although they also figured prominently in prescientific medicine.

Spa Luhačovice in Czech Republic (hotel built by Dušan Jurkovič)

Origins

edit
 
The walls of the Roman spa town Hisarya (Bulgaria)

Spas were used for millennia for their purported healing or healthful benefits to those wealthy or close enough to partake of their waters. This was called a mineral cure and gave let to phrases such as taking a cure and taking the waters. There has always been a mixture of recreational and medicinal connotations involved, from rest and relaxation, stress relief, and convalescence to more specific notions such as humorism. These phrases are sometimes used as a euphemism for one trying to kick a drug dependency.

In many cases, mineral spas were located in mountainous locales that gave an additional excuse to leave the drudgery of a hot house in warm weather during summer's onset and were seasonally populated by the well-to-do. They eventually became early vacation spots with the counter-Victorian work ethic 'rationale' of health as an excuse to have fun and mix with one's peers in recreation.

Subsequently, many became the seed stock for today's modern vacation resorts. Locations such as Steamboat Springs, Vail, St Moritz, Mineral Wells first became popular for the questionable health benefits of mineral or soda-water soaks, ingestion, and clean outs during the hey-day of patent medicines and backward medical knowledge. United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suffered a paralytic illness, and regularly visited Warm Springs and other hot springs for restorative soaks. While his cousin Theodore Roosevelt was known as a physically active and healthy person, he had asthma and used physical activity as well as occasional visits to mineral spas as attempts to address his asthma.[1]

The name "spa" comes from the Belgian town Spa.

Evolution of the resort

edit

As the Victoria era ended, the influences of the industrial revolution created more and more varied members of the upper middle class. The concepts of vacationing, tourism, and travel became less the property of the old monied classes and more shared by an increasing population base of those who could afford holiday trips, like the rich.

Such adventures had much allure before any audio-visual entertainment outside a live orchestra. Thus, the spas began attracting more local patrons and those from afar when the burgeoning numbers could take advantage of the automobile and the now extensive railways throughout most of Europe and the United States.

The spa towns already had infrastructure and attractions to assuage such desires, and the modern tourist trip began to take its familiar form. Other technologies came into play (skis, ski boats, etc.)

Notable mineral spa and spring areas

edit

Africa

edit
 
Slides and pools in the hot springs camp in Bela-Bela (South Africa)

South Africa

edit

Asia

edit
 
Hot springs of Pamukkale (Turkey)

China

edit

India

edit

Vajreshwari Temple, Maharashtra

Japan

edit

South Korea

edit

Turkey

edit

Europe

edit
 
Spa (in Belgium), the water city
 
The Napoleon Spa in Piešťany (Slovakia)
 
Thermal Badehaus und Kurhaus in Bad Neuenahr (Germany)

Albania

edit

Armenia

edit

Austria

edit

Azerbaijan

edit

Belgium

edit
 
The Slatina Spa in Slatina, Republic of Srpska, BiH

Bosnia and Herzegovina

edit

Bulgaria

edit

Czech Republic

edit

France

edit

Georgia

edit

Germany

edit

Hungary

edit

Poland

edit

Romania

edit

Russia

edit

Serbia

edit

Slovakia

edit

Slovenia

edit

Spain

edit

Sweden

edit

Switzerland

edit

United Kingdom

edit
England
edit

Ukraine

edit

Americas

edit
 
Milk River Bath (Jamaica)
 
Warm Springs, Virginia (U.S.)

Brazil

edit

Canada

edit

Costa Rica

edit

Jamaica

edit

Mexico

edit

Uruguay

edit

United States

edit

Oceania and Australia

edit

Australia

edit

New Zealand

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Camargo, Carlos. "The Misunderstood Asthma of Theodore Roosevelt". The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. 3 (5): 696–701. doi:10.1016/j.jaip.2015.06.010. PMID 26271837. Retrieved 1 April 2024.