How Europe’s great spa towns are shoring themselves up against the threat of climate change

Europe’s historic spa towns have drawn wellness-seeking visitors for centuries, from the Roman elite gathering for social relaxation to England’s Victorian society pursuing health cures.

Eleven of these salubrious centres are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including Bath in the UK, Baden Baden in Germany and Vichy in France.

But rising temperatures, flooding and drought could soon threaten the natural springs that have created these hotspot destinations.

In the face of a warming planet, the Great Spa Towns of Europe are joining the National Geographic Society’s Preserving Legacies program to protect their heritage from climate-related hazards.

They will receive access to new tools, technical training and a network of partners to become more climate resilient – and scale these strategies across Europe.

Climate change is threatening Europe’s great spa towns

Europe’s natural springs gave rise to the continent’s famed spa towns and catalysed the European spa phenomenon in the 18th and 19th centuries, explains Naomi O’Toole, communications coordinator for The Great Spa Towns of Europe.

But climate change is a looming threat on the horizon.

“Rising temperatures, floods and drought may affect spring emergence points and water flow rates,” she says, “but there is not yet enough data evidence to help us understand precisely how.”

The impact is already being felt, however, as spa towns are increasingly affected by flooding, including Austria’s Baden bei Wien in 2024 and Spa in Belgium in 2021.

The City of Bath in the UK has temporarily closed its Cleveland Pools due to damage sustained from repeated flooding. They were built to withstand a predicted flooding once in every 100 years, but have flooded every year for the past three.

The result is the potential loss of valuable heritage and economically lucrative tourist attractions.

“Heritage sites do more than inspire us with their beauty,” says Preserving Legacies executive director and National Geographic explorer Victoria Herrmann.

“For communities around the world, heritage is the bedrock of local economies through cultural tourism, craftsmanship, and heritage agricultural systems.”

Cultural travel accounts for 40 per cent of all tourism globally and contributed 9.1 per cent to the global GDP in 2023, making culture “not just a pillar of identity but a critical source of economic sustenance”.

“Despite the clear importance of cultural heritage to community resilience and economic health, investment in and inclusion of heritage in resilience efforts is missing,” Herrmann adds. “This deficiency of culture in climate action is wrong, and it’s dangerous.”

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Europe’s spa towns join climate protection programme

The 11 Great Spa Towns of Europe are joining a programme to bolster action against climate-related impacts on the heritage sites.

Led by Herrmann, the Preserving Legacies project aims to “visualise how climate change may affect natural and cultural heritage sites around the world”.

The programme focuses on empowering local communities to develop climate action skills, tools and solutions to protect their sites.

It starts by training local leaders on heritage values, climate science and modelling, risk assessment, and adaptation strategies.

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“Equipped with this knowledge, leaders guide their communities through a climate risk assessment, identifying unique local challenges and opportunities,” says Herrmann.

“With rigorous training and a science-based assessment, communities are finally empowered with resources and technical assistance to implement adaptation actions that safeguard their heritage and ensure a resilient future.”

Custodians from four of the 11 spa towns will represent the collective and share the insights they gain with their counterparts across Europe.

“Preserving Legacies will enable us to embed climate resilience directly into our 2027 Property Management Plan, ensuring that our extraordinary cultural landscapes and thermal water sources are protected for future generations,” says Chiara Ronchini, secretary general of The Great Spa Towns of Europe.

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The longer-term aim is to create a model for other destinations across Europe that are suffering similar consequences of climate change.