Wiesbaden · DE
Wiesbaden Highlights
Belle-Epoque spa splendour, hot springs and a golden-domed hill
What's the walk about?
Welcome to Wiesbaden, the Hessian capital that spent the 19th century reinventing itself as one of Europe's most fashionable spa resorts. Kings, composers and the imperial elite came here to take the waters, and they left behind a city of columned facades, grand boulevards and gushing hot springs. On this gentle loop we begin at the palatial Kurhaus with its casino and cascading Bowling Green fountains, stroll the elegant Wilhelmstrasse, and cross the old town to the red-brick Marktkirche and the parliament's City Palace. We end in the historic spa quarter at the opulent Jugendstil Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme and the steaming Kochbrunnen, the hot spring that first gave Wiesbaden its reason to exist. Come discover the effortless glamour of a Belle-Epoque spa town.
What you'll see
-
1
Kurhaus & Spielbank
Landmark
The glittering heart of spa-town Wiesbaden, a Belle Epoque palace of pleasure crowned by a soaring dome and fronted by six mighty columns. Behind its grand facade lies the casino where Dostoevsky once gambled away a fortune.
Read the full story → -
2
Bowling Green
park
A long ceremonial lawn framed by colonnades and twin cascade fountains, laid out as the grand green forecourt of the Kurhaus. It is Wiesbaden's open-air drawing room, equally at home hosting rock legends and quiet afternoon strolls.
Read the full story → -
3
Hessisches Staatstheater
Theatre
A gleaming Neo-Baroque opera house commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II, its columned facade rising beside the Kurhaus like a jewel box for imperial Wiesbaden.
Read the full story → -
4
Wilhelmstrasse
Street
Wiesbaden's grand tree-lined boulevard, affectionately called 'the Rue', where classicist facades and Art Nouveau villas frame one of Germany's most elegant shopping streets. On one side runs a leafy park, on the other a parade of luxury boutiques and pavement cafes.
Read the full story → -
5
Marktkirche
Church
A soaring cathedral of red brick whose five spires crown the heart of Wiesbaden. Rising from Schlossplatz, its 98 metre west tower remains the tallest structure in the entire city.
Read the full story → -
6
Stadtschloss (City Palace)
Palace
A dignified neoclassical palace on Schlossplatz that once housed the Dukes of Nassau and now serves as the seat of the Hessian state parliament.
Read the full story → -
7
Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme
Spa
Behind an elegant Jugendstil facade hides Wiesbaden's most opulent bathhouse, opened by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1913 on the site of an ancient Roman bath. Steam rises through majolica-tiled halls fed by one of the city's hot springs.
Read the full story → -
8
Kochbrunnen
Spring
Wiesbaden's most famous hot spring, where salty mineral water surfaces at a steaming sixty six degrees Celsius. This is the source that turned a Roman bathing settlement into a glittering nineteenth century spa town.
Read the full story →