Baden-Baden
— — a town the springs have been keeping warm for centuries.
Not only on a wall.
“A spa town on the western edge of the Black Forest, where twelve thermal springs surface at 68°C beneath the Florentinerberg. Romans built the first baths here in the 1st century, the Friedrichsbad opened in 1877, and the casino in the Kurhaus has been running since 1824. The Lichtentaler Allee follows the Oos through chestnut and oak: two kilometres of park that hold the whole town's slow afternoon walk.
Baden-Baden, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Baden-Baden sits at the western edge of the northern Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg, about 40 kilometres southwest of Karlsruhe and 110 kilometres south of Frankfurt. The town wraps the narrow valley of the Oos river at roughly 180 metres of elevation, with the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse rising into the hills above. Population is near 56,000. UNESCO inscribed Baden-Baden in 2021 as part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, eleven cities recognised together for the thermal-bathing culture that shaped European leisure between the 18th and early 20th centuries.
Twelve thermal springs surface beneath the Florentinerberg at temperatures around 68°C, carrying dissolved salts laid down in the granite below. The Romans built the first bathing complex here in the 1st century AD; remnants of the Kaiserbäder still sit beneath the modern Friedrichsbad, which opened in 1877 in a Neo-Renaissance shell modelled on Roman thermae. Next door, the Caracalla Therme, built in 1985, runs more than 900 square metres of indoor and outdoor pools. The water leaves the springs at drinking quality and is pumped daily through both houses.
The Friedrichsbad keeps a strict seventeen-step Roman-Irish bathing programme that runs about three hours; clothing is not worn inside, and most days are mixed. Caracalla allows swimwear and is the family bath. Both open daily; tickets are sold at the door and through the official Baden-Baden tourism site. The Lichtentaler Allee opens dawn to dusk free of charge. The Spielbank casino, occupying the south wing of the Kurhaus since 1824, requires a passport and a jacket; the rooms open at 14:00.