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You would expect that in the summer with everybody out and about, that there would an enormous amount of soaking related news to share. 

But not so the case, so it seems.

Most impressive newsbit, is this from viterbonews24.it which reports (Aug. 2) on the reopening of the Bagnaccio therme, after 3 years of the apparent (?) renovation. Translated:

'After more than three years of closure, the Terme del Bagnaccio , one of the iconic outdoor wellness destinations in Tuscia, is officially back open . This morning, Saturday, August 2nd, the renovated thermal park on the outskirts of Viterbo was inaugurated with the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony and the return of bathers to the four steaming natural pools, surrounded by lush greenery'.

Not much renovation it seems, more a time-out to get the legal side of the business accordingly.

Whatsupmedia also reported (Aug. 4):

'The spa closed its doors in May 2022 due to issues related to the revocation of the mining concession. The reopening was possible after a long and fraught process, after a new company, Rise Srl, was awarded the sub-concession and the necessary inspections were carried out by the Local Health Authority to verify the sanitary conditions and the functionality of the facilities'.

A week later (Aug. 9), the same source reflects on the commencement of operations:

'To assess the situation, Viterbonews24 visited the site. Since morning, the parking lot was full, and there were about ten people waiting in line at the ticket counter: clear signs of appreciation for the spa, which continues to offer a one-of-a-kind experience, combining the rustic charm of natural hot springs with a welcoming atmosphere'.

_antonio_angri

#sorgeto #ischia #baiadisorgeto #sorgentetermale #termenaturali #campania #regnodelleduesicilie #suditalia #southitaly

Pearl

Usually French website, Nature et sourcechaude, has compiled his soaking experiences on Pantelleria, in English (Aug. 21):

'In fact, the island of Pantelleria, which has no shortage of elegance, is a spa with a wide range of natural thermal treatments. During my stay of a few days, I invite you to discover the thermal wealth of this island of volcanic origin, nicknamed ‘the Black Pearl of the Mediterranean’.

The Guardian (Aug. 20) on some of the hot springs on Ikaria (Greece), simultaneously letting out the secret:

'There are no signs to the hot spring, but I locate it on the map and we drive to the end of the paved road. Overlooking the sea is a stone bench someone has dedicated to her parents, “with gratitude and love as deep as the Aegean”. My dad died recently and the words strike home. I’m glad my mum has joined me on this little adventure.

We walk down to the deserted cove at Agia Kyriaki thermal springs. There are old fishing shacks with stone-slab roofs, and shuttered cottages. Down an unmarked path, we find a rock pool where hot waters bubble gently from the sand, blending with the sea to a perfect temperature. Immersed in the healing mineral bath, I look up at juniper trees and blue sky, lulled by lapping waves and cicadas'.

borras_family on Ikaria

sources d'eaux chaudes naturelles dans la mer.

In Hungary plans are underway to renovate Hèviz. Hungary Today (Jul. 10):

'Lake Hévíz and the high-quality health facility built on its shores welcome around one million guests from all over the world every year. This is an institution and piece of infrastructure that is extremely important not only for the region but also for the country as a whole, and one of its lake structures had to be closed in the spring for structural reasons'.

Μαρια Κολτσακιδου (Jun. 5):

Εδώ στον καταπράσινο κάμπο των Φιλίππων ανάμεσα σε λεύκες, πλατάνια, καλαμποκιές και ηλιοτρόπια με θέα το Παγγαίο όρος και το αρχαίο θέατρο Φιλίππων, εδώ ακριβώς που έγινε η μάχη των Φιλίππων το 42 πχ μπορείς να βουτήξεις μέσα σε ιαματικό πηλό να γειάνουν οι πόνοι σου και να ομορφαίνεις.

Think Geoenergy (Jul. 3) on new geothermal plans in Croatia, including enjoying a hot spring:

'With a geothermal resource in the city of Bjelovar, Croatia now confirmed, the city is investing on a thermal spa facility that is expected to boost spa and wellness tourism in the region. Through the use of geothermal water and heat, as well as a photovoltaic power plant, the future Terme Bjelovar facility will be the first energy-independent thermal facility in Croatia.

...

The thermal spa complex will have a gross area of 13,000 square meters. It will have seven pools, including an Olympic-sized pool. The spa will draw water from a shallow geothermal spring, and will use heating and cooling from the deeper geothermal source. Terme Bjelovar is expected to be completed by March 2026 and will open by June of the same year'.

World Thermal Springs (22 Aug.), translated:

Bosnia and Herzegovina and thermal baths. To the south of Banja Luka there is Banja Vručica or Srpski toplice, where warm waters flow out along the river's edge. You can swim in natural caves among the rocks or in small artificial pools on the shore. Free.

There is also a modern building with a thermal pool, but the photos are only from the outside.

Locals even arrange thermal pools in their homes. I photographed one such pool. Mineralization 550-580 mg/l, pH 6.4-7.2. Temperature about 30 degrees. #bosniaandherzegovina #thermalspringsoftheworld #wordthermalsprings

Sceptics

Once more, the Guardian (Jun. 19), this on urban swimming:

'When the sun is shining in Norway’s capital (and even when it’s not), swimmers plunge into the salty fjord from packed floating saunas and the city beaches are full of paddling toddlers. It is difficult to believe that the waters around Oslo were not always like this.

Until an enormous cleanup process that began in 2006, decades of industry mistreatment, runoff from the city and waste dumping had left the inner Oslofjord heavily polluted.

But after multiple remediations of the seabed, the removal of contaminated material from the harbour basin and the introduction of a huge water and wastewater project, completed in 2015, today it is an urban swimming paradise.

...

The radical turnaround is perhaps best exemplified by Oslo Sauna Association’s 26 floating saunas across seven sites in the city.

Formed in 2016 by diplomats from the ministry of foreign affairs’ ice swimming club, it now has a membership of 18,000 and is pretty much fully booked from 7am until 11pm from October to April. Last year 260,000 people visited their saunas, which are accessible for both locals and tourists who swim-sauna-swim-sauna on repeat for as long as they can.

The turnaround has transformed the city, said Ragna Marie Fjeld, the association’s secretary general.

In the beginning, she said, entrepreneurs and politicians were sceptical, fearing properties near the saunas might lose value as a result.

“But now they all beg us to come to their new building projects because this is something they want,” she said. “You could say the tables have turned.”

Currently the water temperature is about 14C but in the winter it dips to zero and in the summer it gets up to 20C. “A lot of people I talk to say the saunas have made Oslo much cooler and made it the city they want to live in. Part of what makes Oslo great.”

nik_by_the_sea

Valentines Day Beach Sauna & Sea Dip 💖🥰💘❤️💗

More Anglo Saxon views on European sauna and bathing culture. The Daily Telegraph (Jul. 19):

'As a Briton, I feel I have much in common with my Scandinavian cousins: an endurance of long, cold, grey winters; a love of thrillers; a passion for wild swimming and saunas. In the course of researching two books on sauna culture, I’ve spent years sweating it out around Estonian lakes, and in hotboxes on windswept Norwegian archipelagos. Generally, when enjoying these activities I’ve been wearing a swimsuit – and this is where any similarities to our Nordic neighbours end.

...

Through my work, on research trips around Northern European cultures where nude bathing is the norm, I have had to confront my body issues; I have been in situations where being the only swim-suited one feels out of place. I have had to dig deep not to be the stereotypical British prude. I’ve been told to remove my sarong in a 200-person naked sauna event in the Netherlands, and come a cropper in a smoke sauna in southern Estonia where no-one ever wears clothes.

...

Sauna culture is playing into it too, as quirky horseboxes, pop-up tents and cosy barrel saunas provide places to sweat on beaches, lakes and rivers everywhere from Crieff to Cardiff. In the nine months I spent travelling around the country, researching these new hotspots and sharing the bench with athletes and recovering addicts, builders, barristers, mums and teens and pensioners, I came up close to the complex relationship the British have with our own – and other peoples’ – bodies. I met bathers who wear wetsuits, leggings and sweatshirts in the sauna – anything rather than nothing – and I’ve been to “clothing optional” sessions where everyone is naked. Often these are started by the community and evolve organically'.

juliawyshenka

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#pyrenees #pyreneesorientales #sourcechaude #sourcechaudenaturelle #naturelovers #mountains

#rivieremontagne #photography #photosouvenir

Proof

Despite living along side a quite active geological fault zone, there's little to note on Croatia's hot springs.

With most of the country lapping up a huge chunk of the Adriatic's west coast, it's mostly in the northern more mountainous areas where you'll discover geothermal sources; though there's little left to enjoy in nature. See f.i. this link to spa's in Croatia

On a recent non-soaking sojourn, I visited Croatia's city of Split which revels in the jewels of it's past: the Diocletian palace. 
Though the palace may once have been on a strip of land between a lagoon, peninsula and the sea it may well be, that it's origins are to be traced back to those with a geothermal origin.
That's at least what Rusko & Balog (2007) suggest:

'Numerous researchers believe that the Emperor Diocletian used the sulphur spring and that it was one reason for building the Palace at that site. This cannot be proved since there are no written documents'.

Well, they mention sulphurous origins, not necessarily thermal. Could they be hot? Not. According to the same source:

'The highest temperature recorded at the Split spa sulphur spring was 23.75° (30 September 1987) while the lowest was 14°C (20 January 2004)'.

Evidence
Let's see what we can find.

Where the palace was once lapping the shores, there's now a café-lined strada (the Riva) which passes from the market south of the palace to the yacht harbour to the north. Take your time and stroll along the Riva and take in the surroundings; but above all smell. Once you have passed the palace walls you'll notice the whiff of sulphur.

This whiff comes from the drain of the source of sulphorous waters. 

It's actually known that Split possess sulphur baths. Tripadvisor: 

'... the smell has been here for 2000 years from an underground sulfur spring that legend says is one of the reasons Diocletian built his palace here--sulfur was thought of and still is used medically to cure certain bone ailments. The fabulous art deco building a stone;s throw from where you were sitting is actually a clinic that still does this treatment and the 100 year old fish market next to it was purposely built there to take advantage of the fact that flies, like humans, are also repelled by such fumes'.

 Virtualtourist (2016) adds some info on the bathing building itself:

'I am not sure if there excist any other Secession building in Split besides Sulphur baths in Marmontova street. This construction was built in the very beginning of the 19th century and is fine example of the Art Nouveau style in Split. It is designed by a local architect who studied in Vienna and came back home "infected" by the Secession.

The spa is still working (its smell could be feel for milles around) and serve as an rehabilitation center for various rheumatic problems'

Where is this building?

Head inland from the Riva up the strollable Marmontova street and 100m from the harbour on your right you'll see the elaborate decorated Art Deco building Sumporne Toplice. This is just before the fish market. 

The building apparently still houses / functions as a sulphur bath though there were precious little clues as to whether it was till in function other than a plaque with this text:

'This building of 1903 designed by Kamilo Tončić is an impotant specimen, with its richly decorative elevations and interiors, of Croatian Art Noveau architecture. It was built over natural sulphur springs that have been used for therapeutic purposes since the 18th century'.

The building itself is neatly adorned such as in the picture below:

Though the Vitaltourist source above mentions it still functioning, this article notes how it needs to be revived possibly to put Split on par with the German spa town of Baden-Baden.

A bit of history by Vlak (2000) which suggests that bathing halted before start of the Millennium:

'The sulphurous waters of Split have been in traditional medicinal use for a full 17 centuries, ever since the construction of the Palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. The "Sulphur Baths" of Split (Croatia) reached their greatest recognition and popularity at the beginning of the 20th century, when the sulphurous spring was declared to be the source of some of the highest quality medicinal mineral water in Europe. However, interest in balneology and climatotherapy, hitherto so popular in the area, subsequently declined. The "Sulphur Baths" gradually lost their importance and medical use of the sulphurous water gave way to modern forms of physical therapy. The beginning of the 1990s marked the end of commercial and every other use of the mineral water in Split'.

As could be expected, there doesn't seem to be much evidence of any action or possibility to admire the buildings interior. It does seem odd at the least that despite all the assurances of how a sulphur bath is a benefit to anyone's health, the waters simply drain into the harbour ... 

Still it could be worse. If one delves further in Splits history, where now stands the iconic Hajduk FC stadium were public mud baths with sulphuric mud (source).

Notes

Rusko, M & K. Balog (2007) Characteristics and origin of the Spilt sulphur spa (Southern Croatia). Manažérstvo životného prostredia 2007 Management of Environment ´2007 zo VII. konferencie so zahranicnou úcastou konanej 5. - 6. 1. 2007 v Jaslovských Bohuniciach. Proceedings of the International Conference, Jaslovské Bohunice, 5-6 January 2007

Vlak, T. (2000) From the history of the Split hot springs Reumatizam. 2000;47(1):25-30.