For centuries, the Earth’s thermal springs have been harnessed for the curative and restorative properties of their waters. Today, around the world—and most notably in Europe—these pools have spawned resort towns where the beau monde can submerge themselves in nature’s bathubs and take five.

Text Anurag Mallick & Priya Ganapathy

Bad Ragaz, Switzerland Bad Ragaz, a tiny town set snug in the foothills of the Pizol Mountains in Switzerland’s St Gallen Canton, has been a famed wellness destination since baroque times. As far back as the 13th century, pilgrims would journey here to bathe in the thermal waters near the Abbey of Pfäfers, below which Benedictine monks built the first bathhouse in the region in 1716. Monks risked life and limb to lower people down into the thermal waters of the cavernous Tamina Gorge, sometimes leaving them there for a week to heal!