A short history of mineral baths in Bulgaria

From the Thracians and the Roman baths through the Ottoman hammams to the municipal baths of the 20th century — how mineral water shaped the towns of Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is one of the richest countries in Europe for mineral springs, and people have bathed in them for thousands of years. The history of its baths is also the history of many of its towns.

Thracians and Romans

The Thracians already honoured hot springs as sacred places, often linked to nymphs and gods of health. The Romans made bathing part of town life, building baths with hot, warm and cold halls. Many of today's towns were Roman settlements around springs — Serdica (Sofia), Pautalia (Kyustendil) and Diocletianopolis (Hisarya). Near Burgas is Aquae Calidae — "the hot waters" — where the mineral water has been used from Roman times to this day.

The Middle Ages and Ottoman times

The springs stayed in use through the Middle Ages, and in the Ottoman centuries the bath — the hammam — became a centre of social life. Baths whose names have lasted were built then: Chifte Banya ("the double bath", with a men's and a women's section) and Alay Banya in Kyustendil, baths in Plovdiv, Velingrad, Hisarya and many other places. The bath was a place not only for washing but for meeting, talking and celebrating.

After the Liberation

In the late 19th and early 20th century Bulgaria began to build modern public baths. The best known is the Central Mineral Bath in Sofia, opened in 1913 in a style that combines the Vienna Secession with Byzantine and Bulgarian motifs. Resorts such as Varshets, Bankya, Hisarya and Velingrad became places of rest and treatment.

The 20th century

In the second half of the century almost every place with a mineral spring had its own municipal bath, and large spa sanatoriums treated thousands of people a year. After 1990 many of these baths were left without care and closed, and some buildings fell into ruin.

Today

In recent years some baths have been repaired and reopened — sometimes as modern complexes, sometimes as humble village baths run by the municipality. The Bulgarian Association for Thermal Heritage describes them and keeps their records, and this site brings together which ones work, when, and how to get there. If you know a bath that is not here, suggest it.