Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Baden (2.)

BADEN (or Baden-Baden, to distinguish it from other places of the name), a town and celebrated watering-place of Germany, in the grand duchy of Baden. It stands on the side of a hill, near the Oos or Oel, in a beautiful valley of the Black Forest, 18 miles S.W. of Carlsruhe; and it is connected by a branch with the Manheim and Basel railway. The superiority of its situation, its extensive pleasure-grounds, gardens, and promenades, and the brilliancy of the life that is led during the season, have for a long series of years continued to attract crowds of visitors from all parts of the world. The resident population amounts to about 10,000, but that number is frequently augmented fourfold. The prevailing nationality is, or rather was, the French, but Americans, Russians, and English are all numerously represented. The hot springs, which were among the earliest attractions of the place, are twenty-nine in number, and vary in temperature from 37° to 54° R., i.e., from 115° to 153° Fahr. They flow from the castle rock at the rate of 90 gallons per minute, and the water is conveyed through the town in pipes to supply the different baths. The town proper is on the right bank of the Oos, but the principal resorts of the adventitious population are on the other side. A Conversationshaus and a Trinkhalle or pump-room (1842), a theatre (1861), and a picture-gallery, are among the chief fashionable buildings, to which may be added the library and reading-room. The gaming-tables, which for so many years were a striking feature of Baden-Baden, are now abolished. The only building of much antiquarian interest, with the exception of the castles, is the parish church, which dates from the 15th century, and contains the tombs of several of the margraves. There is a Protestant church a short distance to the east of Leopoldsplatz, and not far off a small Episcopalian church; while on the Michaelsberg is the Greek chapel, with its gilded dome, which was erected over the, tomb of the Roumanian prince, Michael Stroudza, who died at Baden in 1863.

Ground-Plan of Baden-Baden.

The springs of Baden were known to the Romans, and the foundation of the town is referred to the Emperor Hadrian by an inscription of somewhat doubtful authenticity. The name of Aurelia Aquensis was given to it in honour of Aurelius Severus, in whose reign it would seem to have been well known. Fragments of its ancient sculptures are still to be seen, and in 1847 remains of Roman vapour baths, well preserved, were discovered just below the New Castle. From the 14th century down to the close of the 17th, Baden was the residence of the margraves, to whom it gave its name. They first dwelt in the Old Castle, the ruins of which still occupy the summit of a hill above the town, but in 1479 they removed to the New Castle (still so called), which is situated on the hill-side nearer to the town, and is remarkable for its subterranean dungeons. During the Thirty Years' War Baden suffered severely from the various combatants, but especially from the French, who pillaged it in 1643, and laid it in ashes in 1688. The margravine Sibylla rebuilt the New Castle in 1697, but the margrave Louis removed to Rastadt in 1706. Since the beginning of the present century the Government has greatly fostered the growth of the town.