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The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Baden-Baden

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1373018The American Cyclopædia — Baden-Baden

BADEN-BADEN, a German watering place, in the grand duchy of Baden, situated on the Oos, at the foot of the Black Forest, 18 m. S. S. W. of Carlsruhe; permanent pop. in 1871, 10,083. There are nearly 30 hot springs, flowing from the rock at the foot of the castle terrace. The waters vary in temperature from 115° to 154° F., and are carried in pipes to the different baths throughout the town. A pint of water from the Ursprung, one of the hottest and most copious of the springs, weighs 7,392 grains, and contains 23.3 grains of solid matter, 16 of which consist of common salt, 6½ of sulphate, muriate, and carbonate of lime, and the remainder of a small portion of magnesia, traces of iron, and about half a cubic inch of carbonic acid gas. The number of visitors to the baths has of late been about 50,000 a year, the season being at its height in July and August. There are numerous hotels and several public baths. The principal place of resort for visitors is the

Conversationshaus, which is surrounded by pleasure grounds and contains an assembly room, restaurant, library and reading room, and the formerly so celebrated gaming tables, the licenses of which expired in 1872, and have not been renewed. The drives and promenades about the town are beautiful. There is a parish church containing the remains of the margraves of Baden, who resided here for several centuries, an English church built in 1867, and a Greek chapel. The remains of Roman vapor baths have been discovered just beneath the new castle. The picturesque ruins of the old castle of the margraves still crown the summit of the Schlossberg, and the new castle, the summer residence of the grand duke, stands lower down on the hill directly overlooking the town. It was founded in 1471, burned by the French in 1688, and subsequently restored. Beneath are curious dungeons connected with the old Roman baths, and in the upper part are portraits of the Baden family.


Baden-Baden.