Overview
About this location
Băile Săcelu in 2026: only the pools and the beach are running, 40 lei per person, open 08:00–20:00 until 13 September. The treatment base is closed and up for sale, so no procedures are available.
Weather – 3 day forecast
Details
General Information
Water temperature
Open-air pools fed by gravity; the water temperature is not published and Săcelu is not a thermal resort
Water type
Sodium chloride, iodide, bromide, sulphurous, calcium and magnesium waters, mineralised at 23–46 g/l; the Săcelata spring, used for drinking cures, has 2.84 g/l
Entry price
40 lei per person (2026); free for children under 7 and for war veterans
Accessibility
Seasonal; in 2026 only the pools and the beach operate, while the treatment base is closed and up for sale
Wellness
Therapeutic indications
Pools and mud: musculoskeletal, peripheral nervous system, gynaecological; the Săcelata spring, as a drinking cure: digestive, hepatobiliary and renal, under medical supervision
About Băile Săcelu
In 2026, what works at Săcelu is the pools and the beach. The treatment base is shut and up for sale, so no procedure is performed here any more. That single sentence is the reason to read this page, and no tourism site writes it.
The operator is Complexul Energetic Oltenia S.A., through its Săcelu recovery and workforce training centre, CRPFM. In an official statement of April 2025 the company placed CRPFM Săcelu under Measure IV of its revised restructuring plan, the sale or donation of auxiliary, non-core structures. The intention to sell was published and no non-binding offer came in. The statement puts it plainly: this year only the leisure area, beach and pools, will operate.
On 2 November 2025 the mayor of the commune, Gheorghe Dumitrelea, said that activity in the resort of Săcelu was, at that moment, zero. The report that carried the quote showed unpaved roads, ruined buildings and a bridge the locals had built themselves. No procedure appears in any company statement for 2026.
Not a thermal resort
- Dr Delia Angheloiu, senior physician in recovery, physical medicine and balneology and head of the Săcelu treatment base, describes water rich in sulphur, chlorine, bromine and iodine, with a total mineralisation of about 45,000 mg per litre.
- The 1984 analyses by the Bucharest Balneology Institute, quoted in the Litua yearbook of the Gorj County Museum, give chlorosodic, iodide, bromide, sulphurous, calcium and magnesium waters at 23 to 46 g/l, drawn through boreholes. Over 80 springs exist in the area, 11 exploited.
- Descriptions calling this oligomineral carbon dioxide water at 20–26 °C, this page included until now, had it backwards: Săcelu is among the most concentrated mineral waters in Romania, and no source mentions CO₂.
- No reservoir temperature has ever been published. The boreholes at Blahnița de Sus, drilled between 1954 and 1958, gave water above 20–25 °C, and the 1971 borehole on the resort beach, sunk specifically to look for thermal water, was closed because of gas pressure. The pools are open-air and gravity-fed, so the water sits at the ambient temperature of the season.
Indications by cure factor
- The pools and the mud address the locomotor system, the peripheral nervous system and chronic gynaecological conditions.
- The digestive, liver and kidney indications that circulate for Săcelu belong to the Săcelata spring alone, the only one used for drinking cures. The Izvorul de Ochi spring has been used for decades for inflammatory eye conditions.
- No list of contraindications has been published for Săcelu, a direct consequence of the resort no longer having a doctor. Do not borrow one from another resort — ask your own physician before a mud or saline bath.
Documented since AD 254
- A Roman fort with public baths stood south of the village. The votive plaque found in 1903 by Alexandru Ștefulescu and by the German Conrad Cichorius bears the inscription of Marcus Tiberius Marcianus to Aesculapius and Hygia, Virtute Aquarum, dated AD 254.
- Modern recognition as a spa resort dates from 1886, after Dr Grosu reported on the springs to the General Health Directorate.
- The Săcelu mineral springs are a nature reserve of national interest, 1 hectare, declared by Law no. 5 of 6 March 2000.
Four pools, each with its own role
- Pool 1 is small, with a low flow, and carries a thick layer of therapeutic mud on the bottom; it was used for chronic rheumatic and gynaecological conditions. Pool 2 covers 550 sqm at 15 cubic metres a day, with mud that re-forms every year, and serves rheumatic conditions.
- Pool 3 covers 800 sqm at 9 cubic metres a day, for peripheral neurological and respiratory conditions, the latter through aerosols. Pool 4 is the largest, 3,000 sqm and 2 to 2.5 m deep at 17 cubic metres a day, known locally as the Healing Spring; its water was pumped for the warm tub baths in the treatment base. The description of the four is Dr Delia Angheloiu’s.
- The water changes colour with the season, and the reason is documented. Studies by the Bucharest Institute of Inframicrobiology, begun in 1979, established that sulphur and photosynthesising bacteria, coloured red and green, set the dominant shade. Pool 3 is light green or whitish green; pool 4 shifts abruptly between raspberry, milky pink, whitish green and dark green, because the bacterial populations replace one another very fast. The full cycle described runs light green from November to March, dark green until June, violet from June to August.
- Two springs sit outside the pools. Izvorul de Ochi, also called Sadoveanu, lies in the minor bed of the Blahnița river. Izvorul Săcelata, or Sfânta Treime, is in the forest south-east of the resort: only 2.84 g/l, chlorosodic, sulphurous and bicarbonate, and the only one used for drinking cures.
- The mud is sapropelic and forms naturally on the bottom of pools 1 and 2, brought in from nowhere. In 2026 you can reach it in the pools, but there are no supervised mud procedures, because there is no medical staff in the resort.
Season & hours
- The 2026 season runs until 13 September. Access is daily, 08:00–20:00, and the last tickets are sold at 18:00.
- The opening was announced on 23 June 2026. In 2025 the season ran from 1 June to 14 September, so the start date moves by several weeks from one year to the next.
- There is no public phone number dedicated to the resort. Seasonal announcements come out through the press office of CE Oltenia, which is the only channel that publishes dates and prices.
- Six employees handle the upkeep of the leisure area for the length of the season. On site you get sun loungers, showers and a lifeguard service.
40 lei, and nothing else on the list
- Pool access costs 40 lei per person in 2026, announced by CE Oltenia on 23 June. Children up to 7 and war veterans enter free.
- The trend: 25 lei in 2023, 35 lei in 2024, 40 lei in 2026. Entry is by identification wristband, a leftover from the complex having been bought by the company for its own employees.
- There are no procedure prices, because no procedures are performed. Săcelu does not appear on the list of resorts with pension house treatment tickets either.
- The procedure lists still circulating online — magnetodiaflux, diadynamic currents, ultrasound, individual aerosols, galvanic baths, short waves, kinetotherapy, massage, nearly 400 procedure places — describe the situation before the closure and are recycled from archives. None of it is on offer in 2026.
Good to know
- In 2026 you come to Săcelu for pools of mineral water and mud, at 40 lei, with no medical framework around them. Anyone looking for procedures has to go elsewhere.
- What is left of CRPFM is on the market as the Cantina Restaurant: 561 sqm of land plus buildings and equipment, offered at 2,090,800 lei plus VAT. No non-binding offer had come in when the company last reported on it.
- Lodging is thin. Pensiunea Lucica, Str. Trandafirilor 101, has 9 double rooms with private bathrooms on the bank of the Blahnița, with a bar, a restaurant, a garden, a terrace and free parking.
- An estimate from 2017 put around 400 beds in guesthouses and private homes across the commune, many of them never listed online. The realistic alternative is Târgu Jiu, about 30 km away on DJ 661 and DN 67.
- The commune has no tourist information line and the resort has no site of its own, so the CE Oltenia press releases are where dates and prices appear first. Check them before you drive out.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much is the entrance fee at Săcelu Baths?
40 lei per person (2026); free for children under 7 and for war veterans. Prices can change, so check the official information before visiting.
What are the opening hours at Săcelu Baths?
Daily 08:00-20:00 until 13 September 2026 (last tickets sold at 18:00).
What is the water temperature at Săcelu Baths?
Open-air pools fed by gravity; the water temperature is not published and Săcelu is not a thermal resort.
Is Săcelu Baths open in winter?
Seasonal; in 2026 only the pools and the beach operate, while the treatment base is closed and up for sale.
What is the therapeutic profile of Săcelu Baths?
Săcelu Baths is a balneary resort with a profile covering: Pools and mud: musculoskeletal, peripheral nervous system, gynaecological; the Săcelata spring, as a drinking cure: digestive, hepatobiliary and renal, under medical supervision. Whether a balneary cure is appropriate is a decision to make together with a physician.