Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a 278,474 inhabitants city on the northern bank of river Rhine in the western part of Hesse in Germany (very close to Rhineland-Palatinate). The city is also the capital of the federal state of Hesse and its 2nd largest city. It's widely considered one of the oldest spa towns in Europe, nicknamed as the Nice of the North. 

 

How do I arrive to Wiesbaden?

  Wiesbaden is very well connected with other cities in Hesse and in Rhineland-Palatinate, because it's on its border.

• Train: there are often trains to important destinations within Hesse like Eltville am Rhine (aprox. 15 minutes), Oestrich-Winkel (aprox. 25 minutes), Rüdesheim am Rhein (aprox. 30 minutes) in Rheingau; Darmstadt (aprox. 40 minutes), Frankfurt am Main (aprox. 45 minutes) or Limburg an der Lahn  (aprox. 1 hour). There are also trains to destinations in other federal states such as Mainz (aprox. 15 minutes) and Koblenz (aprox. 1 hour 30 minutes). 
• Bus: there are buses to many cities in Hesse and neighbouring states.
• Car: having a car many destinations can be reached easily such as Eltville am Rhine (aprox. 15 minutes), Oestrich-Winkel (aprox. 25 minutes), Rüdesheim am Rhein (aprox. 30 minutes) in Rheingau; Idstein (aprox. 25 minutes), Bad Camberg (aprox. 30 minutes), Frankfurt am Main (aprox. 35 minutes), Darmstadt (aprox. 40 minutes), Limburg an der Lahn (aprox. 40 minutes), Gießen (aprox. 1 hour). It is easy to reached from places in Rhineland-Palatinate such as Mainz (aprox. 15 minutes) and Koblenz (aprox. 1 hour 10 minutes).

History

The history of Wiesbaden begins in ancient times, with the city's hot springs already known to the Romans, who built a Roman settlement called Aquae Mattiacorum (main site of the administrative district Civitas Mattiacorum in the province of Germania Superior). When in 828-830 Eginardo (biographer of Charlemagne) first mentioned the name Wisibada and around 1170, the Counts of Nassau acquired imperial properties around the Wiesbaden city area (the city was part of the Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein line until the early modern period). The Reformation was introduced in Wiesbaden in 1543 and spas and hostels were built (by 1550 there were usually more tourists than inhabitants). In 1744 Biebrich Palace became the main residence of the Nassau family and in 1806 Wiesbaden became the seat of government and capital of the Duchy of Nassau, experiencing an unexpected urban development in the following decades. After the Austro-Prussian War, Nassau was annexed by Prussia in 1866 and although Wiesbaden had lost its status as a residential city, it expanded further as a spa, congress and administrative center and experienced a boom, being regularly visited by Wilhelm II of Germany for the summer season. During this time, Wiesbaden became the city with the most millionaires in Germany thanks to the wealthy families and large companies that settled there. When WW1 was finished, Wiesbaden's time as a popular spa town came to an end, occupied by the French army in 1918 and became the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine in 1925 (till 1930) and remained so until the occupying powers left the Rhineland in 1930. During the Night of Broken Glass the great synagogue of Michelsberg was destroyed and a resident of Wiesbaden, Ludwig Beck, was involved in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. During WW2 the city suffered a series of Allied bombings (although it didn't result as damaged as Frankfurt am Main) and it was occupied by troops from the United States in 1945. Since 1948 there's a US Air Base near Wiesbaden-Erbenheim that was one of eight airports that supplied food via an airlift to West Berlin during the Soviet blockade.

Wiesbaden's top 5

If you have little time, here's a list of the 5 things to do and places you can't miss in the city.

1. Kurhaus.
2. Marktkirche.
3. Kaiser Friedrich Thermal Bath.
4. Biebrich Palace.
5. Neroberg.

What can I visit in Wiesbaden?

  Wiesbaden has an important pedestrian area in its city center, mainly located around the bustling street Langgasse and Kirchgasse. The city is full of Neoclassical style buildings (that were rebuilt after World War 2) and it's worth to walk along the city and discover them.

These are Wiesbaden's main attractions:

• 

  Marktkirche

  Marktkirche (14-18 Tue-Fri, 10-11 and 12-16 Sat, 14-17 Sun from Mar to Nov; 14-17 Tue-Fri and Sun, 10-11 and 12-16 Sat from Jan to Feb): Lutheran church built in Neo-Gothic style using red-brick around the 1850s. It has five towers, a pulpit made of ornate bronze cast iron and a Glockenspiel, a carrillon with 45 bronze bells that sounds 3 times per day (9, 12, 15 and 17; 12-12:30 concert).
  
• Wiesbaden City Palace: Schloss built in 1849 by the Dukes of Nassau that after 1866 because the residence of Prussian kings, who visited it almost every summer. The façade is incospicuous but its inside has beautiful stairs, two rotundas and the ducal rooms. The music hall was home of the Hessian Parliament between 1946 and 1962 and now the Parliament of Hesse is placed in a building where the former riding school of the palace was located.
  

  

  Wiesbaden City Palace
  

• Old Town Hall of Wiesbaden: former town hall of Wiesbaden built between 1608 and 1610, considered the oldest building in the city.It was originally a half-timbered (removed in 1828) building following the Renaissance style according to the plans of Valerius Bausendorff and today the building serves as a registry office that has a wine bar in the vaulted cellar.
• New Town Hall of Wiesbaden: building from between 1883 and 1887 in Neo-Renaissance style that used to have a pomp and rich ornamentation, although it was damaged during WW2 and greatly simplified when it was rebuilt.There are usually exhibitions on the ground floor.
• Wiesbaden City Museum at Markt (11-17 Tue-Sun; free):

  

  New Town Hall of Wiesbaden
  

  museum placed in the fomer market cellar below Marktplatz that shows the history of Wiesbaden from the antiquity to today. It's can also be discovered here the treasury of Marktkirche.
  
• Villa Clementine: villa built between 1878 and 1882 with Roman-Pompeian elements bought by Ernst Meyer (a manufacturer of Mainz) for his wife Clementine, who died shortly after the building was finished. It was also used as the summer residence of the kings of Romania. Now it's home of the Literaturehaus Cafe.
  
• St. Augustine's of Canterbury Anglican Church: red-brick church in Neo-Gothic style designed by Theodor Goetz in the 1860s for the English-speaking services for the Britons that visited the spa of Wiesbaden. It wasn't used during WW1 and during the Nazi period, it was was expropriated.

  

  Warmer Damm
  

  After WW2 it was return to its original purpose as an Anglican house of worship but church began to take on an increasingly American characte because of the important presence of the US here.
• Warmer Damm: public park planned under Duke Adolf V in 1860 and designed as a landscape park with a pond, located just behind the threater (Hesse State Opera).
  
• Kurpark Wiesbaden: park was first built in the 1810s and redesigned in 1855 into an English landscape garden by Friedrich Thelemann (horticultural director of Biebrich Palace), that has different kinds of flora (magnolias, azaleas, rhododendrons and bald cypresses), a fountain in the pond with an artificial island and a richly decorated concert shell.
  

  

  Kurhaus
  

• Kurhaus: spa house first built in 1810 that was demolished in 1905 to built an even larger one, with concert and an event hall with 1,350 seats. The building was built in Neo Classical style with some Art Nouveau elements and its the façade is of Belle Époque. Some of its rooms are decorated with frescoes by the Art Nouveau painters Fritz Erler and by Alexander von Salzmann, and even has a Steinmeyer organ. In one of its wings 400 people can be accommodated. Next to it is also found Wiesbaden Casino, that has the highest roulette stakes in Germany and is where Fyodor Dostoyevsky was said to have received the inspiration for his novel The Gambler.
• Bowling Green: park next to Wiesbaden Casino that has the shape of an elongated rectangle with two pools and a fountain. It's also a place open air events like concerts or other special events.
  

  

  Art branch of the Museum Wiesbaden
  

• Museum Wiesbaden (10-17 Wed and Fri-Sun, 10-20 Tue and Thu; 6€/ 4€/ free  adults/ reduced/ people under 18): two-branch museum of art and natural history. The most important of the two is the art collection, dating back to the former collection of the citizen from Frankfurt Johann Isaak von Gerning and that has become one of the most important art collections in Germany, focused in the 19th and 20th century (enlarging the collection with purchases and donations and, if neccesary, returning works of arts that were obtained by Nazi plunder) whose highlights are the works of the Russian Expressionist painter Alexej von Jawlensky. On the branch of natural history, originally an independent museum, there is material from all regions of the world (making it one of the largest museums of its kind in Germany).

  

  Kochbrunnen
  

  One of its most important collections is the one of minerals and fossils, still completely in its 19th century form, focused in the region of Wiesbaden.
  
• Kochbrunnen: most beautiful and famous of the hot springs that are still active (14 in total). It's a sodium chloride hot spring whose water comes out at 66 °C.
  
• Bergkirche: church completed in 1879 in Neo-Gothic in design by Johannes Otzen following the Wiesbadener Programm. Its interior features paintings, stained-glass windows and sculptures and the church serves as a concert venue for church music too.

  

  Kaiser Friedrich Thermal Bath
  

  
  
• Kaiser Friedrich Thermal Bath (10-22 Sun-Thu and 10-00 Fri-Sat from Sep to Apr; 6€/ 4.50€  prize per hour from Sep to Apr/ prize per hour from May to Aug): local thermal baths, also known as Roman-Irish baths, that date back from 1913 that allow the guest to enjoy a wonderful spa experience with saunas and pools with water at 66 °C.
  
• Holocaust Memorial: monument located in the place where it used to be located the largest synagogue in Wiesbaden, that was built in 1869 and destroyed in 1938 that represents the shape of the temple and pays tribute to the 1,507 Jews from Wiesbaden who died in Holocaust.
  
• St. Bonifatius Catholic Church: Neo-Gothic church

  

  Ringkirche
  

  designed by Philipp Hoffmann in the 1840s. The church also includes elements of Romanesque architecture and naturalistic ornaments of Jugendstil style. The church it suffered severe damage in World War 2. 
• Lutherkirche: Lutheran church built between 1908 and 1910 in Jugendstil style in accordance with the Wiesbadener Programm, designed by Friedrich Pützer. The tympanum above the main entrance is a mosaic of the cross and the inner space of the church isdecorated with the altar, pulpit and organ arranged next to each other in the center and Jugendstil ornamentation decorates all the church and Otto Linnemann made all the windows.
  
• Ringkirche (17-19 Thu and 14-18 Sat): Lutheran church that was built between 1892 and 1894 and designed in Neo-Romanesque style by Johannes Otzen. It was the first church in Germany to follow the Wiesbadener Programm (focused on a clear view from every seat to the combined altar, pulpit, organ and choir areas)

  

  Neroberg
  

  and its hall became a model for Protestant church buildings until WW1. It remained unaltered by destruction in wars.
• Neroberg: 245 m high mountain that is located 2 km far from the center of Wiesbaden, having one of the oldest vineyards of the area and excellent views of Wiesbaden and Mainz. One of its main attractions is reaching its top using Neorbergbahn (9-20 from May to Aug; 10-19 in Apr, Sep and Oct; 3.50€/ 2.70€/ 1.75€/ 1.35€  adults roundtrip/ adults one-way/ kids roundtrip/ kids one-way), the last water-powered funicular in Germany. Here it can also be found a little temple, Monopteros, and a complex of swimming pools built in Bauhaus style in 1934, Opelbad (7-20 from May to Sep; 8.20€/ 3€).
  
• Wiesbaden Russian Orthodox Church (10-18 Mon-Fri, 10-16:45 Sat, 12:30-18 Sun from May to Oct; 10-17 in Apr; 10-16 from Nov to Mar; donative): church built from 1847 to 1855 by Duke

  

  Wiesbaden Russian
  Orthodox Church
  

  Adolf of Nassau on the occasion of the death of his wife, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia (niece of Emperor Nicholas I), that was used by the important Russian community in Wiesbaden.The church has the characteristics of a typical Russian Orthodox temple with its onion-shaped domes. It also have a cemetery (the largest Russian cemetery outside Russia in Europe) with notable people buried like Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia, Prince George Alexandrovich Yuryevsky (son of Tsar Alexander II), Princess Olga Yurievskaya (daughter of Tsar Alexander II) and the Russian painter Alexej von Jawlensky.
  
• Goethestein: 13.5 m high stone obelisk on the outskirts of Wiesbaden from where there are beautiful views to Rheingau.
  
• Biebrich Palace: Baroque Schloss in the borough of Biebrich, in the immediate vicinity of the Rhine, comissioned in 1702 by Prince Georg August Samuel of Nassau-Idstein to Julius Ludwig Rothweil,

  

  Biebrich Palace
  

  used as the ducal residence for the independent Duchy of Nassau from 1816 until 1866. After the death of Georg August Samuel, the House of Nassau-Idstein was extinguished and the castle came into the possession of the line of Nassau-Usingen untill Charlotte (Grand Duchess of Luxembourg) sold the palace to the State of Prussia in 1935. It was heavily damaged during WW2.
  
• South Cementery of Wiesbaden: cemetery where it's located the grave of Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron, who famously flew a red Fokker Tri-plane during WW1.

König-Adolf-Platz

Going north from Wiesbaden it can be found some nice towns. One of them is Idstein (24,997 inhabitants), a town with a very fine Alstadt that keeps fachwerk buildings and housesand, making it part of German Timber-Frame Road, a 3,000 km road trip that stops at villages and towns with a lot of half-timbered houses. The Old Town is located around König-Adolf-Platz, a beautiful square with 17th century buildings, among the ones outstand Killingerhaus (most beautiful house, from 1615, used a tourist information office) and Gerberhaus (last remaining building that was used for leather production) . One of its main highlights is the Unionskirche, a Lutheran church from the 14th century whose interior is colorfully decorated with pictures by artists of the Rubens school (like the 38 paintings by the Flemish painter Michael Angelo Immenraedt) and where many Counts of Nassau-Idstein were buried.

Interior of Unionskirche

Here the Reformed and Lutherans were united to form the Evangelical Church of Nassau in 1817. Another important sight is Idstein Castle, residential palace that was rebuilt in the 17th century and the last Prince of Idstein, Georg August Samuel, gave the building a new interior design by well-known artists. It can be visited as part of guided tours. Here it can be visited the Hexenturm,(8-12 and 14 ‒17 Tue-Fri, 11-16 Sat, 14-17 Sun; key obtained at the tourist information office) 42 m high tower, that is the oldest building in Idstein. In Idstein it can also be visited Idstein Palace, a Renaissance style Schloss from the 17th century comissioned by Count Ludwig and his son Count Johann. 

Kreuzkapelle

Continuing north, not far from Limburg an der Lahn, it's located Bad Camberg (14,221 inhabitants), a town and a popular spa town that keeps some of its traditional architecture with buildings such as Amthof and the towers Obertorturm and Untertorturm.The landmark of the town is the Kreuzkapelle, a Catholic pilgrimage chapel was built east on a mountain east of the town in 1725 that was a center of the Catholic youth movement until 1933. In the Alstadt it can also be found Sts. Peter und Paul Catholic Church, church whose oldest part dates back to 1580, the tower, and was rebuilt in the 18th century in Zopfstil (a late Rococo and early Classicism development), one of the few examples of this building style in the region. In the old town is also located the health resort park, Kurpark, laid out in the 18th century by the family Schütz von Holzhausen with Kneipp water treading pool, the stand of old trees and the water games. To know more about the town and its history the visitor can take a view to Bad Camberg Town and Tower Museum (14-18 Sun from Apr to Oct; free).

What can I do in Wiesbaden?

Hesse State Opera

The city of Wiesbaden has an important cultural life that the visitor can discover. Some of the places where the best spectacles take place are the Hesse State Opera (Christian-Zais-Straße 3), an spectacular building with a program with opera, musicals, ballet, classical music and threater; Kulturzentrum Schlachthof (Murnaustraße 1), place most of the life music performances take place or the cinema Munau Filmtheater (Murnaustraße 6). 

 

Where can I eat in Wiesbaden?

Wiesbaden has an important offer of restaurants, mainly located aroun Goldgasse and Taunusstraße, such as the burger bar das!Burger (Grabenstraße 16) or the Turkish restaurant Harput Restaurant (Wellritzstraße 9). It's also a good idea to buy food at the butcher's Trüffel Feinkost (Webergasse 6-8) or the market at Dernsches Gelände.Wiesbaden has an interesting nightlife that can be discovered in the Irish Pub (Michelsberg 15) or in the cocktail bar Manoamano Bar& Pizza (Taunusstraße 31).  

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Posted in: Europe,Germany,Hesse