A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water sometimes seawater is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to prehistoric times. During the medieval era, illnesses caused by iron deficiency were treated by drinking chalybeate. In , ironmaster Collin le Loup discovered the treatment. The water was sourced from a spring called Espa , the Walloon word for "fountain".
In 16th-century England , the old Roman ideas of medicinal bathing were revived in towns like Bath named for its Roman baths. In , William Slingsby , who had been to Spa, Belgium which he called Spaw , discovered a chalybeate spring in Yorkshire.
He built an enclosed well at what became known as Harrogate , the first resort in England for drinking medicinal waters. In , Timothy Bright , after discovering a second well, called the resort The English Spaw , beginning the use of the word Spa as a generic description. It is commonly claimed, in a commercial context, that the word is an acronym of various Latin phrases, such as salus per aquam or sanitas per aquam , meaning "health through water".
It is likely a backronym as it does not match the known Roman name for the location. Spa therapies have existed since the classical times when taking bath with water was considered as a popular means to treat illnesses. Many people around the world believed that bathing in a particular spring, well, or river resulted in physical and spiritual purification.
Today, ritual purification through water can be found in the religious ceremonies of Muslims , Jews , Christians , Buddhists , and Hindus. These ceremonies reflect the ancient belief in the healing and purifying properties of water. Complex bathing rituals were also practiced in ancient Egypt, in prehistoric cities of the Indus Valley , and in Aegean civilizations.
