Baden-Baden is a compact town with an outsized building stock. Medieval castle ruins sit above neoclassical assembly halls, a Russian Orthodox church stands on one hillside and a Greek Revival mausoleum on another, and almost all of it is close enough together to see on foot. The mix is the direct result of a small spa town spending the 19th century hosting people who expected a capital city.
The center
The Kurhaus is the starting point. Friedrich Weinbrenner built it between 1821 and 1824 in the neoclassical style, and its deep portico on a row of Corinthian columns is the image most people carry away from Baden-Baden. It holds the famous casino along with ballrooms and concert spaces, and its full story is worth its own read in the Kurhaus and its casino.
A few steps away stands the Trinkhalle, built by Heinrich Hübsch between 1839 and 1842. Its colonnade runs roughly 300 feet, and sixteen frescoes of regional legends line the rear wall. Spa guests once drank the thermal water here between walks; the background is in the story of the Trinkhalle. Both buildings face the Kurgarten, so the two can be seen in twenty minutes.
Stage and sanctuaries
The Theater Baden-Baden opened in 1862 in a richly decorated neo-baroque style, with a horseshoe auditorium in red and gold. It hosted the premiere of Hector Berlioz’s opera Béatrice et Bénédict in its first season and it is still an active house rather than a museum piece.
The town’s churches record who was visiting. The Russische Kirche (Russian Orthodox church), completed in 1882, has a brightly gilded dome that catches the light from across the valley and was built for the substantial Russian community that summered here. On the Michaelsberg stands the Stourdza Chapel, built between 1863 and 1866 by Leo von Klenze, the architect responsible for much of neoclassical Munich. It served as the burial chapel of a Moldavian princely family, and its temple-front form is startling to come across on a wooded hillside in Germany.
Castles above the rooftops
Two castles look down on the town, and they belong to a much older story than the spa era.
The Altes Schloss Hohenbaden (Old Castle) is a substantial ruin on a ridge above the valley, the seat of the Margraves of Baden from the 12th century onward. It is free to enter, the towers are climbable, and the view over the Rhine plain toward the Vosges mountains in France is the best in the area. It is a solid uphill walk from town or a short drive.
The Neues Schloss (New Castle) sits directly above the old town and served as the margraves’ residence after they abandoned the hilltop. Its terrace gives the classic view down over the rooftops and church spires of the center.
Seeing them in a day
The center cluster, Kurhaus, Trinkhalle, theater, market square and the Roman bath ruins beneath it, fits into a single morning on foot. The Russian church and the Stourdza Chapel add an afternoon on the hillsides. The Altes Schloss is worth half a day if the weather is clear, mainly for the view.
The density of all this comes out of the decades when the town was the summer capital of Europe and display and leisure went hand in hand, a period best approached through the famous visitors who filled these rooms. For opening details and individual entries, see the town’s attractions.