Explore Bath's world heritage
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One of the best preserved Roman remains in the world.
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A world-class collection of contemporary and historical dress.
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Bath's public art museum housing paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.
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Stunning and historic venues for hire in the heart of a World Heritage city.
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Collecting and keeping safe historical records relating to Bath.
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The City of Bath is designated with UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
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Promoting and assisting film-making in Bath & North East Somerset.
The Great Spas of Europe project could see Bath become the UK’s first double-nominated UNESCO World Heritage Site. The project is a ‘transnational serial’ nomination involving 11 spa towns from 7 different countries, led by the government of Czechia (Czech Republic).
Spas were a huge European phenomenon from the 18th century to the early 20th century. The Bader Lexicon of 1854 lists 652 major European spas, but only a handful of the grandest spas now survive in an authentic form. Each used natural mineral waters to treat pain and disease in the days before industrial medication and they are testimony to the development of medicine. The towns have unique urban forms and significant architectural ensembles including special spa buildings and visitor facilities such as spa houses, colonnades, churches, theatres, casino houses, dedicated hotels and boarding houses. The combination of the fabric of the towns with their parks and green spaces and surrounding ‘therapeutic landscape’ is very important. The spas attracted highly prestigious clientele and were resorts for the rich and famous in a pre-cursor to modern mass tourism.
The nomination is officially validated on the UK World Heritage Site Tentative List and a summary of the Outstanding Universal Value of the Great Spas of Europe is shown here.
The 11 candidate spas are:
It has taken over nine years of collaborative discussion and planning across Europe to complete the 1,434 page Great Spas of Europe World Heritage Site nomination. The submission was passed to UNESCO in January 2019. The submission is being analysed and assessed. Inspectors from ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites), which is the advisor to UNESCO, visited each of the eleven towns in September 2019. All being well, a recommendation will be presented to the 44th annual session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (re-scheduled for 2021) where the final decision will be made. Read the submission media release here.
Bath's part in the transnational nomination was recommended for endorsement by Bath & North East Somerset Council in October 2018. Read the endorsement press release here.