Baden-Baden is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe.
The German word 'Baden' translates as 'to bath/bathe'. The springs of Baden-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 bath-conscious Roman emperor Caracalla once came here to ease his arthritic aches.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.
The town was named Baden (without the repetition) in the Middle Ages. The town fell into ruins but reappeared in 1112 as the seat (until 1705) of the margravate of Baden. From the 14th century down to the end of the 17th, Baden-Baden was the residence of the margraves of Baden, 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 moved to the New Castle, which is situated on the hillside nearer to the town. During the Thirty Years' War and the Nine Years' War, Baden-Baden suffered severely from the various combatants, especially from the French, who pillaged it in 1643 and left it in ashes in 1689. The margrave Louis William (popularly known as Türkenlouis) moved to Rastatt in 1705.
During the Second Congress of Rastatt, Baden-Baden was rediscovered as a spa town. The popularity of the city as a spa dates from the early 19th century, when the Prussian queen visited the site to improve her health. The 19th century saw the town rise to become a meeting place for celebrities, attracted by the hot springs as well as by the famous Casino, luxury hotels, horse races, and the gardens of the Lichtentaler Allee. Clients included Queen Victoria, Wilhelm I, Napoleon III, Berlioz, Brahms, and Dostoyevsky. Tolstoy set a scene in Anna Karenina here naming the city differently. Baden-Baden was then nicknamed the European summer capital reaching its zenith under Napoleon III during the 1850s and ’60s. The Russian writer Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler while compulsively gambling at the Baden-Baden Casino. Johannes Brahms' local residence, the Brahmshaus, can still be visited today.
