Gorący Potok (Szaflary)

Gorący Potok in Szaflary is a significant natural geothermal hot spring source in the Podhale region of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, where sulfurous-oligomineral geothermal water naturally flows to the surface at Szaflary — one of the few locations in Poland where genuinely hot thermal water reaches the surface without industrial pumping — in a small stream environment that has given the village its nickname as the source of Poland's most powerful natural geothermal outflow. The Szaflary spring, emerging at approximately 28°C, feeds into a small watercourse that has been the subject of extensive geothermal energy development research and limited public bathing use, representing the naturally occurring surface expression of the deep Podhale geothermal aquifer that is more extensively developed at Zakopane and Białka Tatrzańska nearby. The Podhale landscape of Szaflary — with its characteristic wooden Goral architecture, sheep-grazing meadows, and the dramatic backdrop of the Tatra Mountains on the southern horizon — creates an authentically highland Polish setting for this exceptional natural geothermal phenomenon.