The city of Bath in the southwest of England owes its name to the thermal springs that the Romans used in the first century AD to construct bath houses. From the 17th century to the 18th century, the town experienced a dramatic increase in popularity as a fashionable spa that attracted aristocrats and monarchs. Its unique architectural cityscape earned Bath the status of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987.
View of the Roman Bath with Bath Abbey in the background, colour photograph, 2004, photographer: 0r14nd0; source: Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bath_england_roman_bath.JPG, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA 3.0), http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en.