Current day Galiza comes from the Roman province of Gallaecia, which harboured about 1/4 of the NW of the Iberic Peninsula. One of the many towns founded by them was Ourense, which comes from aurum, that is, gold. With many hotsprings alongside the Miño (Minius) river, the Romans constructed a lot of termae (hot water public baths). The medicinal properties of the ferruginous waters (with high content in iron and other minerals) were well known, specially for skin or hair problems.

These are As Burgas, one of the remaining Roman fountains of very hot waters (about 68ºC) still extant, where people go everyday to treat their skins or fill in buckets of water to take home with them. The water has a very peculiar smell and it's, indeed, very hot! But it's bearable and quite enjoyable. Just over this fountain, one of the public, open space hot waters baths sits, with several dozens of people bathing in. Alas, Spanish law doesn't allow street photography unless you have explicit permission, the subjects are unrecognizable or accidental as part of a bigger, landscape picture, for example, so this is the best I could get without a release form, which are hard to get because people are not used to being photografied on the streets, of course. Still, I found the situation cute and it shows part of my people's character.

[CWS]

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[ThomSirveaux]

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