Day 22: Visiting the Spa

Ethan and I had a busy first full day in Bath.  After a nice breakfast in our hotel, we headed into the center of Bath.  We decided to visit the Roman baths and museum first.

Even though we were at the bath complex relatively soon after opening, the place was PACKED.  There were so many families and tour groups that it was nearly impossible to move around.

The visit starts at viewing platforms over the main pool.  The platforms go all the way around the pool and are decorated with 19th century statues of Roman emperors, governors of Britain, and generals.  These include Julius Caesar, who led the first Roman incursion into Britain, Claudius, who ordered the large scale invasion of Britain, and Julius Agricola, a Roman governor of Britain known for subjugating and Romanizing the province.

The bath complex was built in a Roman town called Aquae Sulis, the Waters of Sulis.  The site had been known for its natural hot springs and before Roman times, had been considered the home of a Celtic goddess, Sulis.  The Romans adapted this belief, creating the syncretism of the Sulis Minerva.  A large complex and holy site developed around these springs.  The complex contained a naturally fed pool, tradition bathing rooms, and a temple dedicated to Sulis Minerva.  Above is an employee of the museum, dressed as a Roman priest.

From the main hot springs pool, we entered the museum.  I was surprised by how much the museum, and the site in general, was dedicated to the holy area of the complex.  I think that the name Bath distracts from what I've ever heard about the site.  It's so much more than the typical Roman bathhouses I've visited.

The temple was just next to the baths.  Though it was dedicated to Sulis Minerva, there were many altars and depictions of other deities within the temple courtyard and the surrounding area.  Facing the interior courtyard were two large depictions of Sol and Luna, the Sun and the Moon.  Below is the depiction of Luna, with the crescent moon behind her.  It also seems she is holding a whip, probably to urge on the horses of her biga, a two-wheeled chariot.  Sadly, the depiction of Sol is lost.

There were altars to many and varied gods found in temple area, including those dedicated to Aesculapius, Diana, Mercury, Jupiter, and Celtic deities, like Rosmerta.  The carving below supposedly depicts Celtic mother goddesses in a triplicate form.  There was even a dedication from the tomb of a German veteran, showing that some Germanic deities were worshiped in Bath.  All of these different religions came together in this sacred area.

One of the things I was dying to see in Bath were the curse tablets found in the spring.  This practice represents another blending of Roman and British religious customs.  Traditionally, Roman curse tablets were placed in places linked to chthonic deities and crossroads, such as cracks in walls or underground, but in Bath they were pretty much exclusively thrown into the spring.  The Romans adapted to native beliefs of connections to deities, using water as the access point.

Though many curse tablets were just addressed to "the goddess" (presumably Sulis Minerva), others were dedicated to gods like Mercury and Mars.  This curse tablet is a complaint about a theft, which seems to be what most of the Bath curse tablets were about, and lists the names of possible suspects to help the gods curse the right person.

Below is a depiction of Sulis Minerva in gilt bronze.  Not much is known about the goddess Sulis before the introduction of the Romans, other than that she was worshipped in the area of the holy springs.  She may have had similar characteristics to Minerva, such as wisdom and decisions, but this is not necessarily correct.  Sadly, we'll probably never know much about the original worship of Sulis.

Through much of the museum, it was possible to see how the natural hot springs fed the main pool of the complex and how the Romans harnessed these waters.  Much of the original Roman construction remains in use, but has been adapted by later users of the baths.  Ethan very intelligently pointed out that the areas around the spring were covered in rust, as the water is high in iron content (We can both attest to this, as they had a tasting station of the spring water.  It tasted eerily like blood.).  The water was warm enough to be steaming and casting some heat; the water coming out of the springs can reach up to 115º F.

On either side of the main pool were more traditional Roman bathing rooms.  The baths were on a fairly large scale, much larger than the town of Aquae Sulis would have required.  This is because the holiness of the site would have drawn many to come visit the baths, much like tourists flock to it today.  Below are some of the hypocausts found beneath the floors of the heated rooms in the baths.

After we finished the baths (and escaped much of the crowds), we headed into Bath Abbey.  I believe that yesterday I called the church Bath Cathedral.  This is not accurate, although the Abbey was once a cathedral.  Bath Abbey was founded in around 675 as a convent, but was later changed to an abbey. Bath Abbey was purchased in the late 11th century and turned into the seat of diocese.  It only held this title for seventy-eight years, before the diocese seat was moved again.  The church eventually fell into disrepair.

Moves to restore the church were made as early as the 1570s, when Queen Elizabeth I personally advocated for the restoration of a grand church for Bath.  The majority of restoration to the church happened in the mid-19th century, restoring the exterior and the interior of the abbey.

The famous fan ceiling of the abbey was completed in the 1860s, but had been the brainchild of a 15th century bishop.

The organ of the abbey was replaced in 1997 with this beautiful Klais Orgelbau pipe organ.

Ethan and I wandered around more in the afternoon, including walking along the River Avon.  The picture above shows Pulteney Bridge, a Georgian addition to the city.  The bridge is lined with stores and restaurants.

We made our way up through The Circus and went to the Royal Crescent.  The Crescent is another Georgian architectural wonder of Bath.  The building was originally designed as thirty terraced homes, but now only ten remain single family homes.  Twelve have been split into apartments, one is a museum for the Crescent, and one is a hotel.

With many of the maps of Bath we've collected, Ethan and I have found many options for discounts for food and beverages.  Sadly, none seemed to be available on a Saturday night.  But we did have a lovely restaurant at a French restaurant.  We seem to be taking a tour of Mediterranean cuisine!

Fun Fact #22: In the bath complex, there is a depiction of a legendary King of the Britons, Bladud.  He has no basis in history, but seems to have been a creation by Geoffrey of Monmouth.  On top of founding Bath (in the 9th century CE), he is credited with being educated in Athens and founding a university in England that was later suppressed by Augustine of Canterbury.  Seems like a busy (fictional) guy!

Day 20: Singing a Goodbye to Wales

I made a tough decision this morning.  I had been planning to go visit Caerwent today, but when I woke up, it felt like too much.  I would have to take a train back to Newport, catch a bus, visit Caerwent, and then wait for the next bus, and then back to the train.  It would have taken the whole day and I just didn't feel up to it.  I was bothered by my lack of motivation and it felt a bit like I was going out on a fizzle.

But I decided to head a bit out of Cardiff to see Llandaff Cathedral, which was supposed to be beautiful.  I walked down Cathedral Road and came to Llandaff Fields.  The park is full of open, grassy areas, a playground, and cricket pitches.

As I walked through the fields, the day turned from gray and slightly rainy to a beautiful, warm, sunny day.

At the other end of the park, I came into the village of Llandaff, which has been incorporated into the city of Cardiff.  It's a very picturesque little place to live.  The town seems mostly dominated by The Cathedral School, an co-educational independent school for ages 3 to 16.  There is a short High Street (the British equivalent of Main Street), leading to the town center.

Just off the town green, are the ruins of the Bishop's Palace.  The building was probably built in the mid-13th century, but was abandoned after it was attacked by Owain Glyndŵr.  Now it houses some beautiful rhododendrons.

In case you didn't know, rhododendron comes from two ancient Greek words, ῥόδον, meaning rose, and δένδρον, meaning tree.  One of the trees had beautiful, large, white blossoms, living up to its Greek roots.

I then headed to the ruins of the old cathedral bell tower.  The ruins are now memorial to those who died in World War I and have been designated to always be a protected, open space.  The stones sit on a rise over the current cathedral.

The contraction of the first cathedral in Llandaff began in 1120, under the bishop Urban.  The church has been renovated and rebuilt multiple times over the centuries.  The church was expanded and refurbished throughout the Middle Ages and then again in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Llandaff Cathedral was the second most damaged cathedral in the British Isles, after Canterbury Cathedral.  On January 2nd, 1942, a parachuted mine detonated near the cathedral, destroying the roof and damaging the spire, among other portions of the building.  The building was extensively repaired and reopened by 1958.

The poor luck continued in 2007, when a lightning strike damaged the cathedral again, ruining the electronics of the organ.  The organ was replaced in 2010 and the new one looks fantastic.

In the 1950s, an aluminum sculpture, titled "Christ in Majesty," by Jacob Epstein was installed in the church on a concrete arch, designed by George Pace.  George Pace also designed a free-standing bell tower for the Chester Cathedral.  The sculpture is suspended over the nave of the cathedral, with Christ looking towards the entrance.

Behind the sculpture and the high altar, there is a lovely chapel.  The Lady Chapel features a beautifully painted ceiling, a stained glass window depicting the story of Jesse, and a reredos with flowers labeled in Welsh.  The original, Victorian reredos of the cathedral, that would have been behind the high altar, was painted by famed pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  It was moved both to protect the paintings and to make a more open view from one end of the cathedral to the other.

In this view, looking from the Lady Chapel back towards the entrance, you can see the rear of "Christ in Majesty," sitting on its arch, and parts of the newly installed organ.

The exterior of the cathedral is just as beautiful as the interior.  The spire is covered with statues, depicting saints and monks, and gargoyles, both demonic-looking and angelic.  This small statue of an angel crowns the chapter house of the cathedral.  If you look closely (and watch Game of Thrones), he bears quite a striking resemblance to Joffrey Baratheon.

In the evening, I went into Cardiff center for my final dinner in Wales.  I had heard from my tour guide yesterday that there was an all male choir that had open rehearsals very close by.  I ate quickly, trying to make sure I could go (and not walk in late).  When I sat down to the side, with some other observers, I was immediately approached by one of the choir members.  He asked me if I sang, and when I told him I did, he asked me what part I sang.  Next thing I knew, I was placed in the choir with the rest of the Tenor 1s.

For the next hour and a half, I sang with the Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir.  I would say that we ran through fifteen to twenty songs, both in Welsh and English.  I recognized maybe three of them.  I'm still not sure which was more challenging, sight reading the music or sight reading the Welsh.  It is really impossible for me to express how wonderful this experience was.  The music was beautiful, the people were lovely, and I was struck by just how similar the experience was to so many I've had in singing groups I've participated in.  It was truly an amazing, spontaneous experience.

As we finished singing, the man I had been sitting next to gave me a pin from the choir.  It is something I will treasure forever.

What a wonderful way to say goodbye to Wales.

Fun Fact #20: The Welsh National anthem, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" (Land of Our Fathers), became the de facto national anthem because it was so popular at rugby games.  The national anthem had been "God Bless the Prince of Wales" and was meant to be sung before rugby matches.  To accommodate the popularity of "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadua," for a time both songs were sung before the start of the match, but eventually it was just reduced to "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadua."  Though the anthem has never been legally made the national anthem, it has been accepted by all and is used in government ceremonies.  And on a sidetone, it's far easier to sing than "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Day 11: Returning to Wales

When I woke up this morning, I only had one thing left on my to do list for Shrewsbury: visit the abbey.  I checked out of my hotel and left my bag before heading down Wyle Cop, across the river, and to the abbey.  The abbey is constructed with the same red stone as Shrewsbury castle and it is a very lovely color.  I had heard that there was something peculiar about the abbey's clock, so I investigated before I went into the building.  For some strange reason, the clock does not use the tradition Roman numeral X for ten.  Instead, it uses an f, so twelve because fII and nine become If.  I don't know why this happened, but it makes for an interesting clock.

The interior was beautiful and surprisingly light, especially the altar, with its golden reredos.  This abbey had a similar history to the old cathedral in Chester.  Both had been much larger before the Dissolution of the Monasteries and both were reduced to smaller parish churches, allowing the rest of the buildings to crumble.  The Shrewsbury Abbey went through many different stages, different layouts as certain parts of the abbey were left to decay and then, later, as restorations were made.  Even today, with many restorations and rebuilding, the church is much smaller than the original abbey would have been

The abbey has Norman beginnings, with the gifting of Shropshire to Roger de Montgomery by William the Conqueror.  In 1083, Roger de Montgomery publicly pledged to build an abbey in Shrewsbury and construction began.  In the 12th century, the abbey grew in importance after the abbot "found" the remains of a Welsh saint, Winifred, and brought them back to Shrewsbury Abbey.  This encouraged pilgrims to come to Shrewsbury and increased the popularity of the abbey.  During the 14th century, the abbey was expanded and renovated.

In 1540, the abbey was shut down and the abbot and monks were given sums of money and sent away.  The abbey shrank to a parish church and suffered neglect for about three centuries.  In the 1800s, more efforts, and maybe more importantly, more funds, were put into restoring the abbey to it's former beauty.

This stained glass window of Saint Winifred is one of the more recent additions to Shrewsbury Abbey, added in 1992.  According to legend, Saint Winifred had a pretty sad early life.  She was the daughter of a Welsh chieftain and at a young age decided she wanted to become a nun.  A suitor of hers did not like this idea and in a fit of rage, chopped of her head.  It rolled away and supposedly a healing spring sprouted from where it stopped.  Her uncle, a saint as well, Beuno, saw the event and asked God to strike the suitor down and the man promptly died.  Beuno then put Winifred's head back on her body and she came back to life.  She then went on to be an abbess and lived a long, happy life.  Her uncle, Beuno, is also credited with resurrection six other people.  All of this reinforces my absolute confusion with Christian mythology, claims that Christianity is a monotheistic religion, and why miracles today are way less interesting than miracles of the past. 

Shrewsbury Abbey was also home to quite a few stone coffins with effigies.  They included the supposed resting place of Roger de Montgomery, the founder of the abbey.  Others were in better shape and painted with a rich palette of colors.  I noticed that in a back corner of the church someone had placed a small flower into the hands of one of the effigies.  It was a sweet, simple gesture and very beautiful.

After visiting the abbey, I attempted to head out of Shrewsbury, but got an extra hour and a half in the  trains station due to train delays.  I almost missed the stop for Llandovery as I was wrapped up in an entertaining podcast and knitting.  But I made it!  My hotel was just across the road from the train station, so I was in my room in no time.  I then found out that the bus I needed to take for tomorrow's excursion (to the Dolaucothi gold mines) does not run on Wednesdays.  It seems I'll have to go by cab which is not ideal.

I wandered into Llandovery, partially to find food and partially to get the rest of my steps in for the day.  It's a small, quiet town, seemingly dominated by the large boarding school that it hosts.  The town center is focused around its town hall and small streets of shops run around it.

I also learned that just outside the town, in a smaller village area, there was another Roman fort.  I had remembered the name from my research before embarking on this trip.  I was tempted to try to walk out to the site, but a storm was beginning to head my way and if I recall correctly, the site isn't really excavated.  I decided to stay within a quick walking distance of my hotel, in case the skies opened up.

Like any good Welsh town, Llandovery has a castle.  The Normans constructed the castle in the 12th century, but it was soon capture by the Welsh.  It switched hands between Welsh and English for the next two centuries.  Like seemingly every castle in Wales, the castle was the sight of the battle between Welsh revolutionary, Owain Glyndŵr, and the English.  This battle in 1403 left the castle crumbling and it was never repaired.

On the same rise as the castle, a shining, silver statue stands, looking out over Llandovery.  The statue commemorates Llwelyn ap Gruffudd, the last Welsh sovereign ruler before Edward I's invasion of Wales.  Llwelyn fought to maintain control in Wales and prevent the English from conquering the territory.  He died in battle against the troops of Edward I.  

After touring the town, grabbing a bite to eat, and poking my head into the British boarding school, I made it back to my hotel, just as the raindrops started to fall.

Fun Fact #11: During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, cataloguing the worth of the monasteries and abbeys was very important so that Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII knew what value they were adding to the crown's estate.  This was some of the items listed for Shrewsbury Abbey: "some milk, chemise, couch and tomb of the Virgin bones, hair and vestments of apostles and martyrs, saints both male and female, bishops and confessors, a whole rochet of Thomas Becket, part of the rochet in which Thomas Becket was martyred, cloth stained with Thomas Becket's blood and brains, fragments of Thomas Becket's attire including his hair, collar, girdle, cowl, woolen, shirt and glove."  Sacred objects in a church...or the latest episode of Hoarders?

Day 10: Eyeing Roman Ruins

Today began much earlier than it should have, around 12:45 AM to be exact.  I was awoken to someone coming into my room, and although I didn't understand exactly what he said, the blaring alarm and words "fire" and "get out" stuck out pretty distinctly.  I headed outside, grabbing my camera and my hard drive where I save all my photos (what priorities I have!)  We stood around for a few minutes, watching firemen go in and out of the hotel.  There was no smell of smoke or any evidence of fire and eventually we were let back in.  I believe I overheard this morning that it had something to do with a faulty alarm panel.

So I got up this morning, slightly less well rested than I had hoped to be, and headed to the bus station to try to make my way to Wroxeter where a Roman town remains in ruins.  I had just missed a bus and the next one was not for an hour and forty-five minutes, so I decided to go to Shrewsbury Castle.  The castle is a beautiful red color, which stood starkly against the grey, wet sky.  It's quite small, looking more like a country manor house than a proper castle.  This is because the original medieval origins have disappeared to make way for a newer castle.  Up a hill above the castle, is Laura's Tower, a scenic tower looking out over Shrewsbury.

I decided to go into the Shropshire Regimental Museum, housed in the castle as I had so much time to kill.  The collections were impressive and gave great details about British military history.  I was amazed by the collections of honorary medals they had, quite possibly thousands.  I also learned that the first British casualty in World War II was a native, a corporal named Thomas Priday.  It was also entertaining to see some of the military history of the American Revolutionary War from the other side.  I walked into one part of the museum and internally shouted, "The Red Coats are coming!"  I'm a true Bay Stater, through and through.

After taking my time in the museum, I still had plenty of time on my hands and walked farther back into town.  I went to St. Mary's Church, a church located towards the center of Shrewsbury.  Like many churches I've visited in the U.K., they have opened a cafe in one of the side chapels of the church.  I think this is such a clever idea of using space that is generally unused and a way to increase income for churches, many of which need substantial money for repairs.

The church was very beautiful on the inside, but most striking was the stained glass window behind the altar.  It is a 14th century depiction of the Tree of Jesse that has supposedly been in three different churches in Shrewsbury.  Though its been repaired and moved multiple times, many of the original pieces of glass are still in good condition.

I grabbed some lunch on my way back to the bus station and arrived just in time to catch my bus to Wroxeter.  It had been lightly raining all day and continued to as I walked towards the visitor center at the Roman town.  I decided to visit the small museum first to get a sense of the site and the history and to hopefully let the rain stop.

The site was originally home to a Roman fort called Viroconium, built around 58 CE by the Legio XIV Gemina. The legio XX Valeria Victrix soon replaced them, but the fort was not used for long.  Although it was initially an important staging ground for excursions into Wales, the Roman military focus shifted to the north and Chester rose as the main military base.  As the Roman military left Viroconium, they pulled down the walls and destroyed buildings to prevent any native tribes or rebels from taking the defensible position.

As the Roman army moved out, Viroconium transformed into a town.  Veterans stayed behind and locals from the Cornovii tribe moved in.  The town already had traders and markets established and continued to grow as civilian destination.  Over time, it became the fourth largest town in Roman Britain.  The town grew, building more public spaces such as bathes, a market hall, and a forum.  The city, although mixed with different peoples, took on a Roman-style of administration and many of the daily practices stayed within Roman customs.

The city continued to thrive during Roman occupation, even with through changes.  The rise of Christianity altered the nature of the town, as it did in many parts of the empire.  There is evidence for the coexistence of a Christian church and Roman temples during the 3rd century CE, but by the 4th century the worship of pagan gods had been abandoned.  Sacred objects, like the statuette below to Venus, were discarded and found by archaeologists in dump heaps.

When the Romans left Britain in 410 CE, the town was not abandoned.  In the previous years, Viroconium Cornoviorum, as the town (not the fort) was known, had become more self reliant, with fewer imports from other parts of the Empire and more locally made products coming into use.  The town was in a position to survive without connections across the English Channel.  And it did survive for a time, but as conflict rose in sub-Roman Britain, the town began to fade.  In the 6th century, a Mercian king forced all the Christians out of the remaining town.  By the 7th century, the site was abandoned and many of the buildings had been torn down and repurposed.

Today, a very small fraction of Viroconium Cornoviorum has been excavated.  The majority of the excavations are the massive bath complex at the site.  Like in Segontium, most of the ruins just show the foundations of the buildings.  A notable exception is a large piece of the bath wall, nicknamed the Old Work by locals.  The piece comes from the ball of the basilica, that connected into the rest of the bath house.  The basilica would have been 245 feet long by 66 feet wide.  Clearly these bathes and public buildings were meant to accommodate a major settlement, unlike the 600 square foot bathhouse in Prestatyn.

The baths had a large series of hypocausts to heat what would have been a very large tepidarium and calidarium.  The bath also included some unusual features for a place like Shrewsbury.  The most interesting was a natatio, a large, unheated, open-air swimming pool.  It clearly wasn't very popular in the dreary English weather, as it was filled in fairly quickly.

Abutting against the bath complex were multiple public buildings, including a market hall, rooms for officials to meet, and just across a street, the forum.  The market hall would have been two stories and seemed to have at least ten rooms on the first floor for stalls to be set up.  The forum area has not been excavated and the Roman road running between the two areas has been paved over with a modern road.  The forum area is actually underneath a replica of a Roman country house.

The replica home is constructed based off buildings excavated in the Wroxeter area and is meant to represent a Roman home around 320 CE.  I wonder at the decision to build the replica house rather than excavate the forum beneath, but it was an interesting experience to walk through a fully constructed Roman home.  The house contained exemplary rooms, such as a shop at the front of the house that could have been used as a family store, a triclinium (dining room), cubicula (used for various things, but here shown as a bedroom), and small bath complex in the home.  Though the home seems to be set up for teaching children about Roman home life, I still enjoyed wandering through the rooms and getting a fuller sense of what a Roman house was like.

I then scurried off to catch a bus back into Shrewsbury, as they ran every two hours and I had exhausted what I could see at the site.  Wroxeter was a lovely and informative site, but sadly so much has been left undiscovered there.  Hopefully, there will be more chances to dig there!

Fun Fact #10: There is some evidence that Viroconium Cornoviorum was a center for treating eye ailments.  In ancient Roman medicine and religion, it was common to give an offering of the ailed body part to Aesculapius, as an offering to be healed.  Usually there was a promise of future sacrifices as well.  In Wroxeter many fragments with depictions of eyes have been found, like the ones above.  This suggests that there was some specialist or specialists in the town treating (and probably successfully) problems with the eyes!