Kochbrunnenplatz was originally the square around the Kochbrunnen fountain, which was redesigned as a drinking fountain in 1823. Today, the name is used synonymously for the open space known as Kranzplatz between Saalgasse and the former Hotel Rose. It owes its name to the most important of Wiesbaden's 26 hot sodium chloride springs, which were already used to operate a bathing facility in Roman times.

When the palace hotel was built in 1900, the thermal baths with two buildings and a large pool as well as a hostel (mansio) were uncovered. The baths were also maintained in the Middle Ages; at that time, there were ten bath houses with associated hostels in the immediate vicinity of the "Brühbrunnen". Matthäus Merian's copperplate engraving from 1646 also shows the dense development around the Kochbrunnen.

In 1785, the hospital with the baths for the poor was founded on Saalgasse; the cemetery for the poor was also located here. In 1823, the fountain was relined and the drinking cure was introduced at Kochbrunnenplatz, the center of the spa business that flourished until the beginning of the First World War. Carl Florian Goetz also built a small colonnade for this purpose, which was replaced around 1840 by a drinking and promenade hall with wooden supports and a tent-like roof. In 1855, a cast-iron Wandelhalle was erected in its place, which reached as far as Taunusstraße and extended along it almost as far as Wilhelmstraße. In 1887, a competition was held for a promenade hall in order to enhance the urban development of the square. 1890 saw the inauguration of a neo-Renaissance-style drinking spa complex designed by Wilhelm Bogler, consisting of halls and pavilions joined together at an angle, of which the former Wandelhalle on Saalgasse, the so-called Arkadenhalle, and the eight-sided fountain pavilion have been preserved in a reduced form. A lush green garden was also created at that time.

During the redesign of Kochbrunnenplatz in 1976-78, the remains of Bogler's drinking spa were largely cleared away; the Kochbrunnen spring was relined in 1979 and the fountain pavilion was moved to its current location.

The second spring outlet, the Kochbrunnenspringer (1970), is designed as an asymmetrical mushroom cap. As the thermal water flows over the surface of the jumper, it releases carbon dioxide and leaves behind a characteristic orange-red coloured sinter due to oxidized metals.