UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE "SPA TOWNS OF EUROPE"

Bad Ems on the River Lahn

Bad Ems is a town in Rhineland-Palatine, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Thein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa town on the river Lahn.
The town is located on both banks of the Rhiver Lahn, the natural border between the Taunus and the Westerwald, two parts of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. The town and its outer districts are situated within the Nassau Nature Reserve.

Bad Ems, a historical spa town

In 2021, the town became part of the transnational UNECO World Heritage Site under the name “Great Spa Towns of Europe”, because of its famous hot springs and 18-20th century architecture bearing testimony to the popularity of spa resorts in Europe during that time.

A bit of history

In Roman times, a castrum was built at Bad Ems as part of the Upper Germanic Limes, but today not much of the structure remains. In the woods around the town, however, there are distinct traces of the former Roman border.
The town was first mentioned in official documents in 880 and received its town character in 1324. The Counts of Nassau and Katzenelnbogen rebuilt the bath and used it together with other noble visitors. In the 17th and 18th centuries Bad Ems was considered one of Germany's most famous bathing resorts. It reached its heyday in the 19th century when it welcomed visitors from all over the world and became the summer residence of various European monarchs and artists, including Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, Tsars Nickolas I and Alexander II of Russia, Richard Wagner, Jacques Offenbach, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vasil Vasilyevich, etc.