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Hot springCorse-du-Sud

Source chaude des Bains de Baracci

Olmeto

Dimensions
Sulphurous water at 37–38 °C in the pools (Corsica tourist office); 52 °C at the source according to two tourism websites
Period
Second half of the 19th century (building, according to the Inventaire); 1881 (former bath hotel according to the tourist office); 1992 (springs owned by the commune); December 2014 (reopening after renovation); 2025 (new renovation according to the tourist office); Roman tradition asserted but not documented
What stands there
Temperature: 37 °C (Corsica tourist office, FR and EN pages) or 38 °C (same office, two other pages; Le Bon Road Trip gives no temperature) for the pools; 52 °C at the source only on Génération Voyage and Cityzeum (tourism websites). The Roman origin is written by the tourist office (‘thermal tradition going back to the Roman period’) and three tourism websites, with no excavation or old text cited: I did not retain it as fact. The building is classed as ‘private property’ in the Inventaire entry (survey of 2001), whereas the plan de territoire du Sartenais writes ‘property of the commune of Olmeto since 1992, open to the public’: the two can coexist (building/springs) but I cannot settle it. The name of the locality is Caldane (Mérimée). Cityzeum gives coordinates of Ajaccio (discarded) and speaks of outdoor ‘wild pools’: not confirmed elsewhere, therefore not retained. Reopening dates: December 2014 (Génération Voyage) and ‘renovated in 2014’ (office, old page); ‘entirely renovated in 2025’ (office, current FR page).

On a hill overlooking the gulf of Valinco, near Olmeto, the Bains de Baracci are one of the few places in Corsica where hot water comes out of the ground. A document of the Assemblée de Corse (2021) classes Baracci among the sodium sulphur springs of the island. The pools are at 37–38 °C according to the tourist office; two tourism websites give 52 °C at the source. The tourist office says that the place continues a thermal tradition coming from the Roman period, but no excavation or old text is cited in support: it is better to stick to dated facts. The Inventaire (Mérimée) describes a former thermal establishment known as Bains de Baraci, at the locality of Caldane, beside the Baraci stream: a large isolated granite building, three storeys high, built in the second half of the 19th century. The tourist office dates the former bath hotel to 1881 and says that it reproduces a house in Saigon. The springs have belonged to the commune of Olmeto since 1992. According to Génération Voyage, the baths reopened in December 2014 in the former hotel; the tourist office says they were entirely renovated in 2025, with indoor and outdoor pools.

Inventaire général (Mérimée) — Ancien établissement thermal dit Bains de Baraci, Olmeto (IA2A000821) ↗

Further reading

Getting there: The French sheet of the Corsica tourist office presents the baths as open (prices from €9.90 to €49, opening period ‘from 9 September to 31 December’, year not specified, baths ‘entirely renovated in 2025’). The English version of the same source still speaks of renovation, ‘reopening unknown, inaccessible’: it seems out of date, but it is better to enquire before coming. The pools are paying; nothing is verified for free bathing. Coordinates: ‘Bains de Baracci’ node (natural=spring) in OpenStreetMap, confirmed on 22 October 2026; the exact position of the emergence has not been verified.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Corse-du-Sud (15).