|
|
|
THE THERMAL BATHSPerché son calde e sì fervente l’acqueche vengono sotto terra, dalle vene?O, quanta l’ignoranza mi dispiaque,veggendo da Viterbo il Bulicano,el bagno da Pozolo come viene,e l’Acqua Santa nostra fia gnano”(Acerba – libro IV cap. V) It was, naturally, prehistoric man who discovered the source of sulphurous water rising up next to the river from the slabs of the rock and flowing into the river, mixing its opal-coloured water with the green water of the Tronto.Initially, the Thermal Baths were closer to where Santa Maria now stands: this is testified to by important ruins and publications. Around the 9th century a cataclysm destroyed the thermal baths and the sulphurous water source subsided. Now only a fine thread remains that flows into the Tronto in the vicinity of Santa Maria.The first to cite the Thermal Baths of Acquasanta was Tito Livio Acquasanta when he reprised the words of the Roman Consul Gaius Planco in the year 708 after the founding of Rome. Affected by a serious disease and after having taken many mineral baths in Etruria, it was only here that he recovered his health. Taken by enthusiasm he used to say "the people of Ascoli are blessed and death is unknown to them because they are able to prolong their lives thanks to these prodigious mineral baths" The young Charlemagne stopped here in the year '800 years before he was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III in Rome.Centuries passed before the first stone was formed: thousands of years. Then, there was only the Antrum, the large natural pool where the water collected to then move towards the river, the current breaking up into lively white foam. Centuries passed before the thermal bath complex of today was established.In 1982 the complex consisted of a building on the bank of the river Tronto with all possible treatments, from miraculous mud to inhalations. The pool is closed to the public today. It has a natural vault of unique beauty, like a large crib or cave, a den, a fold of rock. Careful studies of the incrustations in the Antro grotto were carried out in the past century by the Ascoli pharmaceutical scientist Orsini, who declared and demonstrated that the spots that adorn the vault of the Great Pool are due to living organisms, mainly Bacillarie and Navicole. These thrive despite the fumes of sulphuric rising up from the water. Orsini discovered new algae, Microcoleus and Coocochioris, to which were added the name “orsinian”. Closer, the rock is gaudy in its sulphurous flowers; on a slope of the vault towards the sky and almost hidden, the rock takes on a green colour with a touch of light blue.Beside the pool the gallery opens leading to the naturally-formed Grotto Sudatoria, where people can breathe in the sulphur fumes. This huge cave was discovered around the middle of 1800 by the same Antonio Orsini. At the beginning of the cave the water does not spurt up, there is only the lake where the water is stirred by a gentle bubbling. The source comes down from the heights of Maularo, underground, in torrents, and over the centuries cut right under Acquasanta, forming the caves. The gallery that leads to the Grotta Sudatoria was only opened at the beginning of the XX century. Workers digging there knocked down the wall and brought to light a small cave with stalagmites and stalactites. On August 4th, 1779 it was decided to build the second building for use as changing rooms as designed by the Ascolan architect Lazzaro Giosafatti. The document containing details of the project expresses the consideration that the site should leave "a place large enough for the comfort of the poor women and other people, who bring bandages, spun wool and laundry" since the building had always to be built on the bank of the River Tronto, in the place where they whitened the roughly hand-woven cloth, dampened in the river water and then laid out to dry in the July or August sun.After this work, it was thought appropriate to accompany the swimming pool with a building to house managerial offices, surgeries and recreational rooms for the bathers: this was the old establishment. In more recent times, the changing rooms and the mill have been demolished and the new facility built.In the earliest times at the Thermal Baths, Nature had the upper hand, then Acquasanta became first a Castle of the Sate of Ascoli and following that the Podesteria and the Baths were administered by the city. The statutes of Ascoli, dated 1377 give ample testimony to this.Between 1400 and 1500 the Baths were rented to private individuals by the State of Ascoli with the obligation to make improvements. From 1500 to 1700 the Baths were neglected even if they were still under the administration of Ascoli Piceno.When the Italic Kingdom was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy, the Baths became state property and went on sale. They were purchased in 1812 by Count Giorgio Jackson Centini and belonged to the Piccolomini Centini family for a long time: Grandfather Jackson, his son Giovanni who had the road built (1858), and nephew Orazio Piccolomini. It was the latter who had the building raised next to the pool. After the Piccolomini, the Baths passed into the hands of Nicola Trocchi who made significant improvements.After Trocchi, the Baths became the property of a company the majority of whose members were from Ascoli and chaired by Francesco Merli. It was this company that started the construction of the new building which was never finished, and so the Baths were taken over by the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction and sold to the current owner, the SANTA company.Treatments available include – treatment of inflammation of the locomotory apparatus. Specific cave therapy treatments for the prevention of diseases of the respiratory system. Fango-therapy. Treatment of metabolic diseases and dermatological diseases. Bibliography:
|