Saratoga Spa State Park, City of Saratoga Springs Recognized as Most Important Historic Spa Town in North America

SARATOGA SPRINGS —The first-ever International Spa Heritage Festival drew hundreds of people to Saratoga Spa State Park for a series of events that took place Oct. 8 – 10.  

Event host Saratoga Spa State Park welcomed a delegation from the European Historic Thermal Towns Association (EHTTA), which represents Europe’s historic spa towns. 

During the event, the EHTTA scientific committee announced its recognition of Saratoga Spa State Park and the City of Saratoga Springs as the most important historic spa town in North America. 

The EHTTA scientific committee includes expert architects and professors from across Europe, including its president, Mario Crecente, a professor of Heritage Tourism Management at the University of Coruna (Spain) and founder of Crecente Asociados, a company specializing in activating and creatively using heritage resources for tourism. 

Crecente, NYS Parks Commissioner Randy Simons, SPAC President Elizabeth Sobol, and Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner were among the conference speakers, and City Mayor John Safford was ceremonially presented with a bathrobe by three European mayors representing spa towns in Croatia, Spain, and Italy. 

Additional events included a community festival organized by the Spa City Farmers Market featuring local goods, live music, exhibits from the Saratoga Public Library, and the National Bottle Museum, and the first-ever Bathrobe Addicts event in the U.S., where the 30-member European delegation donned bathrobes and waved their respective national flags as they paraded around the Roosevelt Campus. For more information, visit: https://parks.ny.gov/parks/saratogaspa.