Since time immemorial, man has used water for therapeutic purposes.
As far back as pre-Roman times we can find references to treatments using water, and mention of balneotherapy and crenotherapy. Hippocrates, the most famous doctor in ancient Greece, in his treatise on medicine Corpus Hippocraticum, wrote a whole chapter “On Airs, Waters, and Places”, in which he describes the use and management of water and the environment for therapeutic ends.
The Tus Spa dates back to at least the age of the Roman Empire, and although it suffered a decline in the Early Medieval Period (5th-10th centuries), it was given a new lease on life in the 16th century, when Don Martín Pérez de Alaya, the Archbishop of Valencia, ordered it to be rebuilt. In the baths of the Spa they found Roman coins from the reign of Domitian, as documented in Topographic Relations, by Phillip II of Spain (1.575-79).
Even His Excellence Don Martín Pérez de Ayala, writing in a book on the Council of Trent in 1555, mentions the famous springs at Fuensanta. Later, in 1566, writing for his biography, he said: “In the second year of my archbishopric, after, by the grace of Our Lord, I had been able to speak at the Provincial Council, which lasted from the 25th of April to the middle of May… Later, at the end of the month, I was compelled by bad health (for I had gout in four or five places and could not walk) to visit some metal baths that were to be found near the town of Yeste, whose waters cured or provided much relief for many similar ills; I arrived there three days before the festival of Pentecost, and I preached there, and I was at the baths some seven days, where I found that my condition was notably improved.I went to Segura, my birthplace, and there I was received with much rejoicing by all”.
There are other documents in which the existence of the Baths at Tus is mentioned. Among them, we can find one in which a bishop, the Abbot of Uclés, having been cured of various conditions he suffered from, expresses his appreciation by saying: “If I were at Tus, I would never die”.
We can find further references to the Baths at Tus in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, in works such as “Contestania y Bastetania del Reino de Murcia” (Contestania and Bastetania in the Kingdom of Murcia) by Cristóbal Lozano (1.609-1.667); “Discursos históricos de Murcia y su reino” (Historical discourses on Murcia and its Kingdom) (1.775, 2nd edition), by Francisco Cascales; “Antigüedad y nobleza de la ciudad de Lorca” (Antiquity and Nobility in the City of Lorca) (1.741), by P. Morote; and “Diccionario Geográfico” (The Geographical Dictionary) by Miñano, published in 1.828, which situates the Baths at the foot of a mountain on the banks of the River Tus, saying that “they were already well-known in the reign of Charles V of Spain”, and lamenting the inconvenient road leading to the baths and the lack of “good inns for the sick”.
From the memoirs published by Don Juan de la Cruz Martínez in 1.842, we learn that in 1.831 the River Tus rose and washed away part of a pool which the author describes as having been constructed in Roman times from materials of that period. Among the remains uncovered there was a Roman coin from the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD), the adopted son of Antonino Pío. He also commented: “The waters here have amazing powers and effectiveness in the treatment of skin conditions, shingles, rheumatism, for aesthetic effects, weak nerves, circulation of the blood and lymph circulation, and inveterate canker sores which have not been cured by any other medical means”.
Madoz, writing in his “Diccionario Estadístico Histórico de España” (A Dictionary of Historical Statistics of Spain) in 1.846, describes how in Tus he found a spring of very effective medicinal waters “which could cure hysteria, shingles, and gout”.
Pedro María Rubio, in his “Tratado Completo de las Aguas Minero Medicinales en España” (Complete Treatise on the Mineral Medicinal Waters of Spain) published in 1.853, says that “the old Baths at Tus”, whose waters could be classified as cold and sulphurous, could cure shingles, hysteria, and rheumatism.
A few years later, in 1.875, there is another description of the effects of the water of the Baths at Tus on the human body, which mentions these uses and adds further detail. The description appears in a work by Doctor Anastasio García López from 1.889 called “Hidrología Médica” (Medical Hydrology). Drawing on the medical literature of the period, he writes that the waters can be used to treat “shingles, hysteria, and rheumatism, throat infections, scrupulous and herpetic ophthalmias, leucorrhoea, etc., with great success”.
In 1.892, the waters were officially declared Medicinal Mineral Waters, and became one of Spain’s official spas, since they fulfilled the requirements in force.
At the end of the 19th century, the territory containing the spa (originally the property of Yeste) was auctioned off by the State. The land passed from owner to owner until a part of it was bought by Don Ramón García Fernández in 1.925. He went on to acquire all the lands belonging to the old estate.
At the start of the 20th century, the Tus Baths boasted two old pools lined with stones which received water directly from the spring, situated in rooms with a surface area of 10 square meters, measuring 1,5 meters in height. The accommodation comprised two small houses which had been constructed next to the baths. In one of these houses the owners of the spa had erected a small counter where bread, wine, ham, and meat were served, the only products that were sold there until well into the last century.
Don Ramón García Fernández, in keeping with tradition, made the baths available to the public and improved the facilities, installing five individual marble baths and a new boiler, and constructing four large rooms with ten beds above the baths after the end of the Civil War.
In the 1.940s and 50s, visitors to the spa travelled on horseback, bringing with them the utensils they would need. They brought just enough equipment to spend the odd number of days of treatment that they had chosen according to their needs and their economic situation.
From the 1960s onwards, the Tus Spa was to undergo the greatest transformation in its history. The advent of the telephone, electricity, and road systems helped to boost these changes, but it was above all thanks to the attitude of Don Ramón García Fernández and his children that these transformations could take place. They dedicated their time and work to the spa during a time when the local mindset was dominated by the lack of available resources and the migratory trend common in the population.
Unaware of the 1.892 declaration which classified the waters in the springs as Medicinal Mineral Waters due to a lack of documentation on the part of the multiple owners of the spa over the years, the García family began a new application for Public Utility and Medicinal Mineral Waters declarations, which were awarded in 1.981.
In 1.983, Don Ramón’s heirs founded the company Baños de Tus, S.L., and under their management the policy of constant improvement has continued until the present day.
In the 1.990s there was a boom in the spa sector. Tus Spa also benefitted from this boom. Its links with the surrounding natural environment, the publicity it received on both regional and national community thermal programmes, as well as the alternative that the spa offers to coastal tourism, and our search for relaxation to alleviate our modern pathologies, anxiety, or stress, mean that greater numbers and varieties of clients are visiting the spa.
A new project is currently being worked on to renovate and extend the zone of the springs.
