Spa & Wellness · Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Baden in summer: taking the waters at Europe’s most elegant spa town
The Romans built thermal baths here in the 1st century AD. Queen Victoria visited in 1880. Marlene Dietrich called the casino the most beautiful in the world. Baden-Baden has been getting things right for a very long time.
Baden-Baden sits at the northern edge of the Black Forest — elegant, unhurried, and quite extraordinary · Photo: Unsplash (free to use)
Baden-Baden occupies a narrow valley at the northern edge of the Black Forest, hemmed in by wooded hills that create a microclimate slightly warmer and sunnier than the surrounding region. The thermal springs that drew the Romans here 2,000 years ago still produce 800,000 litres of mineral-rich water daily at 68°C, feeding both the historic Friedrichsbad bathing house and the modern Caracalla thermal complex.
The Friedrichsbad is the more interesting of the two: a neo-Renaissance palace completed in 1877, with a bathing programme that takes three hours and proceeds through seventeen stages of rooms at varying temperatures. The experience is compulsory in the original sense — you follow the programme sequentially, there are no shortcuts, and you are not permitted to use your phone at any point. The result is the most thorough disconnection from modern life available in southern Germany.
The Casino — the building that Marlene Dietrich, who knew something about both glamour and architecture, declared the most beautiful she had ever seen — is open for tours in the mornings and for play from 2pm. The Dostoevsky connection (he reportedly lost his life savings here and was moved to write The Gambler as a result) adds a certain literary frisson to proceedings.
The Friedrichsbad takes three hours, proceeds through seventeen stages, and bans mobile phones throughout. It is the most civilised enforced relaxation in Europe.The Germany Travel Guide
The Trinkhalle — a 19th-century colonnaded pump room decorated with Romantic-era frescoes depicting local legends — is free to enter and forms the social centre of the Kurpark, Baden-Baden’s beautifully maintained spa gardens. The summer classical music programme at the Festspielhaus, one of Europe’s largest opera houses, runs throughout July and August with an international programme that regularly draws world-class performers.
