Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

Water Journeys (II): Granada Spas and Springs
through Travelers’ and Hydrologists’ eyes
Armijo F (1-2)
(1) Professional School of Medical Hydrology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad
Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
(2) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Medical Hydrology, Faculty
of Medicine, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
farmijoc@med.ucm.es
This book has been prepared as a simple contribution to the 38th ISMH World
Congress to be held in Lanjaron in the month of June 2012
It can be considered a continuation of a first text entitled "Water Journeys. Waters
in the Aragonese Pyrenees through the eyes of its travelers", published in 2007
on the occasion of Expo Zaragoza 2008. At that time, my interest in travel books,
waters that heal or that do not, and the mountains that crown Aragon, my homeland,
moved me to write the book. Now travelers and water, as well as, the beautiful land
of Granada, which is hosting this year’s world meeting of hydrologists, drive me to
write this new book
The province of Granada is rich in healing springs that have been used since ancient
times with great satisfaction, waters that are still in use and that thanks to their
properties, their flow and their temperature have surpassed the ordeal of time adapting
itself to the trends along time.
Using the texts of travelers seems to me a suitable way to obtain information on
how the water was, what were the facilities, the lodges and the roads at that time.
This seems to me a reliable source that cannot be considered biased, because these
people have only been witnesses of what they saw and later wrote in their personal
journals.
Granada has been visited by many travelers throughout time for various reasons.
These travelers even used the spa facilities leaving their written comments as a
testimony of their experience. We will find travelers like Al Idrisi, Ibn Batutah,
Jerome Münzer, Andrew Navagero, Georg Hoefnagel, Antonio Ponz, William
Jacob, Richard Ford, Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, John Leycester Adolphus, Alfred
Germond of Levigne, Gerald Brenan, Francisco Izquierdo Martinez, Federico
Bermúdez-Cañete and many others, commenting the situation of Granada spas,
sometimes with praise and sometimes not so.
Balnea 285
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4
2012, núm. 6, 285-286