1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lucca, Bagni di

LUCCA, BAGNI DI (Baths of Lucca, formerly Bagno a Corsena), a commune of Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Lucca, containing a number of famous watering-places. Pop. (1901) 13,685. The springs are situated in the valley of the Lima, a tributary of the Serchio; and the district is known in the early history of Lucca as the Vicaria di Val di Lima. Ponte Serraglio (16 m. N. of Lucca by rail) is the principal village (pop. 1312), but there are warm springs and baths also at Villa, Docce Bassi, Bagno Caldo, &c. The springs do not seem to have been known to the Romans. Bagno a Corsena is first mentioned in 1284 by Guidone de Corvaia, a Pisan historian (Muratori, R.I.S. vol. xxii.). Fallopius, who gave them credit for the cure of his own deafness, sounded their praises in 1569; and they have been more or less in fashion since. The temperature of the water varies from 98° to 130° Fahr.; in all cases it gives off carbonic acid gas and contains lime, magnesium and sodium products. In the village of Bagno Caldo there is a hospital constructed largely at the expense of Nicholas Demidoff in 1826. In the valley of the Serchio, 3 m. below Ponte a Serraglio, is the medieval Ponte del Diavolo (1322) with its lofty central arch.