City of Bath

The City of Bath is a compact historic city in Somerset, England, famed for its Roman-built baths and a rich ensemble of 18th-century Georgian architecture. The UNESCO designation recognizes the Roman remains together with a largely intact Georgian urban landscape built of local Bath stone.

The Roman Baths complex developed around natural hot springs, the medieval and later Bath Abbey, and extensive Georgian developments such as the Royal Crescent, The Circus and Pulteney Bridge. The cityscape combines a preserved street plan with terraces, crescents and public squares characteristic of 18th-century urban design.

Bath’s Roman bathing complex originated in the 1st century AD and was associated with a temple and shrine to the thermal spring. The city experienced a major expansion in the 18th century when architects such as John Wood the Elder and Younger laid out monumental civic and residential schemes; conservation since the 19th century has aimed to preserve the unified Georgian character.

Bath lies in the valley of the River Avon in southwestern England, in the county of Somerset. It is located within a short drive northeast of the city of Bristol and is set among low hills that provide several elevated viewpoints over the historic centre.

• Roman Baths note: The Roman Baths are built around a natural thermal spring and form the best-preserved Roman bathing complex north of the Alps; a museum on site displays artefacts and the original bathing structures.
• Best viewpoints: The city is widely celebrated for its 18th-century Georgian architecture constructed in local honey-coloured Bath stone; key viewpoints are from the Abbey tower and the slopes of the nearby Bathwick hills.

What to See #

• Roman Baths: The Roman Baths complex - founded in the 1st century AD around natural hot springs and including the Sacred Spring, temple remains and bathing chambers preserved under the modern museum.
• Bath Abbey: Bath Abbey - a largely Gothic church on the site of earlier ecclesiastical buildings with major rebuilding in the 12th to 16th centuries.
• Royal Crescent: Royal Crescent - an 18th-century sweep of 30 terraced townhouses designed in the Palladian style, forming one of the city's principal Georgian landmarks.
• The Circus and Pulteney Bridge: The Circus and Pulteney Bridge - mid-18th-century urban ensembles by prominent local architects that exemplify the city's Georgian planning and stonework.