Long before wellness became a global industry, a small town in eastern Belgium shaped the European approach to health, leisure, and water. In Spa, the original spa is reclaiming its historic prominence.
I float along a gentle stream of warm thermal water, overlooking bare winter branches silhouetted against the setting sun. The current guides me around the edge of an outdoor pool, nudging me toward a furious, bubbling center before pushing me indoors, where more pools, jacuzzis, hammams, and an impressive array of treatment rooms unfold in sequence.
I am at Les Thermes de Spa, a modern thermal complex perched above a small, elegant town nestled in the forested hills of eastern Belgium. Spa might have gone unnoticed, were it not for one defining fact: this town gave the world both a word and the foundation for a global wellness industry.
Spa proudly calls itself “the original spa,” and its mineral springs were already known during Roman times. They were first recorded by Pliny the Elder, whose writings helped establish Spa’s reputation as a place of healing waters. Popular legend suggests that Romans named Spa from the Latin phrase sanitas per aquam (“health through water”), but historians believe the name has an older, Germanic origin.
“Spau, spaha, or spaw were old Germanic words describing water that bubbles or gushes from the ground,” explains local guide Philippe Calonne. “This is the more likely origin of the name, which Roman travelers then adopted. They spread it across the empire, giving the term to other thermal towns, and over time it evolved into a general word for health and wellness facilities.”
The springs that shaped Spa are still visible today. In the town center, the Pouhon Pierre-le-Grand pavilion—named after Peter the Great, who visited in 1717—houses one of the original sources that attracted visitors. “The origins of Spa are tied to its very first spring,” Calonne says. “Initially, it was just a hole in the ground, but by the Middle Ages, word spread of Spa’s acidic, iron-rich water and its reputed health benefits.”
Early visitors did not bathe, however. Spa was initially known for drinking therapy, and public drinking fountains still dot the town. Their basins are stained a deep rusty red—a clear indication of the iron content—with some corroded entirely. The water tastes metallic, sharp, and slightly bitter. Historically, that was intentional: the stronger the flavor, the more convincing it was believed to be as a cure. Peter the Great reportedly drank over 20 cups a day for a month and was said to have been cured of digestive and liver ailments.
Bathing became popular in the mid-16th century. In 1559, physician Gilbert Lymborh from nearby Liège published a treatise on Spa’s mineral waters. Wealthy patients began visiting not only to drink the water but also to immerse themselves in it. By the 18th century, Spa had transformed into one of Europe’s most fashionable resorts. Its grand municipal baths were built in 1868, and under King Leopold II, who ruled from 1865, the town was intentionally reimagined as the “pearl of the Ardennes.”
“Over time, Spa became widely known and attracted important figures from across Europe,” says Calonne. “Aristocrats, artists, intellectuals, and political leaders arrived as much to socialize as to seek cures.”
This legacy is preserved at the Musée de la Ville d’Eaux, housed in a former royal villa at the park’s edge. Inside the Pouhon pavilion, Antoine Fontaine’s 1894 painting, Guestbook, captures 92 notable visitors over the centuries—from King Charles II to Descartes, Voltaire, and Litz. Later arrivals, including John Lennon, David Bowie, Pablo Picasso, and Charles Dickens, missed the painting, but the message is clear: Spa attracted everyone who mattered.
