Worth knowing

The City Hall on the market square dates all the way back to 1520. The town’s oldest church with a walled-in cemetery was first mentioned in recorded history in 1485.  The Andreas Church was built around 1500, and the splendid Baroque structure of the Parish Church was erected by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer between 1732 and 1736.

Since the 18^th century, Carlsbad has flourished as a spa town. While prior to that time, every house had had a small bath chamber, large bath houses were now being built. In 1938, Carlsbad had 16 mineral springs and six bath houses with whirlpools, steam baths, peat baths, and carbonated baths, as well as various prominent spa facilities.

Carlsbad owes its origins to its healing thermal springs. Though these had probably already been known to the Romans, the recorded history of the spa town didn’t begin until the 14^th century. Kaiser Karl IV. (1346-1378), after whom the city is named, is considered to have been its founding father.

A record dated 1347 tells of a “warm bath by the Elbogen“, but does not yet mention a town. On August 14^th, 1370, the settlement was granted city status, the “Elbogner Stadtrecht“. The town’s administrative and legal autonomy were threatened when the Elbogner Land was pledged to the Counts of Schlick, until it was made a direct subject of the royal chamber after the “Schmalkaldische” war.

Through the sponsorship, the city of Wiesbaden expresses its bond with the traditional cultural and spa town of Carlsbad, which today has around 50,000 inhabitants.