The Accidental Tourist

Saturday is our day for running errands (since on most Sundays the shops are closed), and while being on one of those, we accidentally came across a sign promoting the Roman spa ruins in Badenweiler, a town that we had never heard of before. As a matter of fact there had been a major Roman settlement 1,800 years ago. The errand wasn't important anymore, as we immediately went into tourist mode.

We gladly payed the 2 € entry fee. An award winning glass roof is covering the complex. The modern architecture creates a stark but pleasant contrast to the ruins. It is a piece of art in itself, and bonus: it effectively protects the remains from further decay.

The construction of the bath houses began in the first century AD, and more buildings were successively added due to the growing interest of the population. The floor plan is symmetrical in shape, likely with one section for women, and the one on the opposite side for men. Those almost two thousand years old remains are in amazingly good shape.

During excavation amazing Roman plumbing had been found as well. Of course they had a system for running hot and cold water, and a different channel system for grey water, too.

 A cold water pool and a maintenance shaft.

This is how it might have looked like:

Far left and right: A leisure garden,

from there one would enter the changing facilities.

Sweat rooms could be found in the back of the building.

Adjacent round pools would provide cold water after the sauna session.

The four squares in the middle would have been the thermal pools,

and of course there would have been a heated floor system.

Picture Source

After the fall of the Roman Empire this wonderful culture of bath houses seemed to wane. With the arrival of the Middle Ages everything known about personal hygiene and wellness seemed forgotten. Maybe that's why they call it "The Dark Ages"? The Roman spa had been torn down and its building material used to build a fortress. As a matter of fact it was long believed that nearby Castle Baden was from Roman origin. However, it was founded in the 12th century, and indeed built with bricks from the former bath house.

The castle was meant to protect the nearby silver mines, and strategically built on a steep hill, and not easy to conquer (even today… we were well out of breath after we climbed it.).

In the 17th century the castle was besieged, destroyed, and never rebuilt or reused again, and left to fall into ruins.

And so nature reclaimed what was once a mighty castle.

The small town of Badenweiler still has more architectural gems to offer, such as the house of culture, formerly a residence of the margrave of Baden, built at the end of the 16th century.

We left this town with the desire to come visit again to learn more about this history laden location. With no further ado we hit the roads only to be confirmed that we got to be back. The surrounding scenery was simply gorgeous. Alas, the light was fading and we had to rush back to Offenburg, as we would meet friends on the Christmas Market (This market was for once nothing to write home about.).