Lydia Xynogala: The 750 Mineral Springs of Greece (Revisited)

This project “springs” from observations during my ongoing doctoral dissertation at ETH Zurich, where I study the 19th and 20th century histories of bath buildings around Greece and the making of a culture for healing around natural resources.

I realized that, beyond buildings, the wealth of springs – 750 in fact, as they were catalogued in a book published in 1938 – is little known today. Furthermore, as I begun to visit them, I encountered scenes of neglect paired with conversations with enthusiastic bathers in their waters. A great number of these encounters revealed to me the positive impact on the health of many of the springs’ return visitors, along with their significance in community making. In most cases, whether in the form of open-air pits or buildings, the sites I visited were disheartening conditions, with little or no maintenance of bathing infrastructures, and I detected a general lack of care by state and municipalities for their future.

While in my dissertation I engaged with writing a history, with this project I aimed to address the present and future of these environments, built and natural. “750 Mineral Springs of Greece” started out as documentation project. It hasn’t been completed yet as such, but with the support of this fellowship I have visited 40. There is about 710 left, so this is an ongoing long-term project.

Besides the predominant neglect that I found, another issue came to my attention: some of the mineral spring sites are currently facing a potential transformation. Many are managed by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED), with the mission “to maximize Hellenic Republic’s revenues by developing public assets”, and have gone or are currently under a bidding process. Those that have been successfully bid for will be transformed into privatized sites of wellness. Thinking through Silvia Federici’s critique of negative commons, the question of natural resources as something to take applies here. Historically, springs and baths were sites for all, and this is changing.

In May, I presented spring stories at the Onassis AiR Open Day, a piece that revolved around storytelling and postcards of bath sites. In a revolving display of old and new postcards made from photographs of my visits, I shared stories of travel, bath encounters, ideas, surprises, findings, forgotten histories, and imagined futures. In my hope to further engage with these issues and bring the conversation on-site, in spring sites, the project took yet another form, the founding of the “Friends of the 750 Mineral Springs of Greece”. This is a growing association of friends, artists, architects, writers, scholars, designers, educators, but most of all: bathers. Friends gather in springs and Loutropolis (bath towns). Through organizing workshops, our goal is to engage municipalities in conversation and to publish texts, bathe, create unsolicited site-specific artworks and ephemeral architectural interventions. We pay attention to imagined potential futures, away from the narratives of the luxury spa exploitation and fast tourism consumption. Through actions and conversations, we raise questions. We would like the springs and baths to remain accessible as sites of care for all.

Through the support of the Onasssis AiR Fellowship, two events took place in the summer of 2023. (A third one was scheduled in Loutraki by invitation of the Loutraki Festival, but was postponed due to the catastrophic fires in the region and is set to take place in 2024.)

01: Kamena Vourla, 18.06.2023

The first action took place in April 2023 in the Loutropolis of Kamena Vourla, where the sole bidder was announced for the forty-year lease of the springs, as well as of the state-built bath buildings “Asclepius” and “Hippocrates” together with the historic hotels “Radion” and “Thronion” by the architect Gerasimos Molfesis. All buildings have been shut for decades and the bidder, a greek luxury hotel chain, will renovate them with the goal of turning them into a “contemporary center for wellness”. The bid was approved by TAIPED and the Friends of the 750 Mineral Springs of Greece decided to pay a visit before the renovation starts. The day started with a bath followed by a mud face-and-body treatment in neighboring Psoroneria. In Kammena Vourla, designer and cook Christina Kotsilelou (Onassis AiR fellow) prepared and offered an uplifting tonic with elderflower and a healing snack with yoghurt and rose petal preserve. Visual artist Orestis Mavroudis (Onassis AiR fellow) propped up the fallen sign of the historic Radion Hotel, named after the radon contained in the spring waters. He restored it with the help of Panos Dragonas, Dimitra Kondylatou, and myself and lit specific letters to spell ADIO, meaning “goodbye” or “vacant” in Greek.

The architect and light designer Sophia Berdelis shed light on a forgotten era: the Asclepius Hydrotherapy building, closed since 1989. For one evening, the grim singular light source provided by the municipality was counterlit by Sophia to reveal its architectural qualities. Throughout the day and night, the photographer Tobias Wootton, with whom I maintain an ongoing collaboration in this project, continued his photographic series on the 750 mineral springs and documented all the friends’ interventions. This included photographing ADIO together with Orestis Mavroudis from atop an amusement park wheel, as well as a rooftop, directing postcards, and lastly a car with light to document the action of Sophia Berdelis.

02: Souvala, Aegina, 24.07.23

For the second action, we visited the island of Aegina and were hosted by Vessel, run by artist and writer James Bridle (Onassis AiR convener 2020-21). The Souvala springs and bathouse present a very different situation from Kamena Vourla. Shut for over two decades, the baths used to heal thousands of patients each year. The last geological survey from 1983 indicates the spring of these baths as active. We were told that the spring has vanished. The area has been largely built-up with tourism infrastructures.

Where is the spring? What is the future of these baths? The gathering in Souvala aimed to address these questions in conversation with the community of Aegina. We were joined by Roula Sarantou, Deputy Mayor of Aegina, and Elias Grypaios, President of the Citizens Association of Vathi, and the bath building opened for the first time in many years. While we could not enter due to safety reasons (the structure has severely deteriorated over years of neglect), its doors were open. A crowd of both locals and visitors gathered at the beach of Souvala.

I gave a talk (in English and Greek) about the history of this spring and its bathing infrastructures and, with the help of James Bridle, made an installation in the sea water. In 1884, an analysis of the chemical properties of the waters of Souvala showed that there were two springs. Each could fill approximately 53 cubic meters of water per day. Since these springs have disappeared, I installed the historical volume of one of them. The outline showed the volume of a pool that could be filled in one day by the strongest spring. It evokes a bathing environment no longer there, one that the spring could create.

Aggeliki Stenaki, an Aegina native whose father run the baths for forty years, shared personal memories and pointed out where the spring comes out into the sea water. Friends dug the spot and indeed the spring still springs. The conversation with the municipality will be continued as we were invited to repeat the event. Friends are pressing for a new study by the Greek Geological Institute (IGME) to be conducted.

Together with friends, this project will continue with more actions and collaborations in the 2024 bathing season. Updates will be shared here.