Sciacca thermal baths have ancient origins. The legend tells that Dedalus was escaping from Crete when
he stopped near the fluffy caves attracted by their therapeutic effect; he
decided to make the cavern a more pleasant place and carved some seats in the
stone.
Probably, the Greek were the first to discover the therapeutic effect of
the caves but were the Romans to exploit those waters and to give life to a
thermal culture.
It is an underground activity of secondary colcanism to cause
the phenomenon, while on the surface it is possible to see a rich hydrothermal
patrimony, which makes Sciacca one of the best-known thermal stations all over
Italy.
Inside St. Calogero caves, the atmosphere, full of water vapour, reaches
the temperature of 40°.
These particular kinds of cares are particularly
suitable for people suffering from rheumatic pains. Completely different are the
characteristic of the waters and their curative effects.
The most important one
the sulphurous water which, once gushing out from the Valle dei bagni is
immediately conveyed to the old thermal establishment; here it feeds some pools
where there has been previously placed some mud used for the mudtherapy.
From
the Valle dei bagni originates also the "saint water", a mineral water with
diuretic effects.
Not very far from that source, near the sea, the local
administration of Terme has opened for a few years the great and modern
establishment of Molinelli.
In the big swimming pools it is possible to benefit
from the bomine-iodic waters of the near source. The thermal baths are opened
all the yearlong.
