Scalafani Bagni. Exploring Thermalism between Neglect and Re-Enactment

Sclafani Bagni, a small nineteenth-century Sicilian thermal establishment located within Madonie Park, exemplifies an insightful case study of thermalism between neglect and re-enactment. Today, its landscape oscillates through the coexistence of a ruined bathhouse and the informal pool, la Pozza. This article explores this dual reality through three complementary methodological approaches: archival and documentary research, field observation and territorial exploration, and situated and participatory research. Developed during the author’s doctoral thesis, this mixed methodology allows for a multi-layered interpretation of Sclafani Bagni as a thermal landscape negotiating between the past and the present, the private and the public, the top-down and the grassroots, and the human and the more-than-human. Such dichotomies have sparked reflections on themes such as water ownership, the tangible and intangible dimensions of heritage, and alternative forms of continuity.