Bad Urach () is a town in the district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...

, at the foot of the

Swabian Jura The Swabian Jura ( , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of Swabia. It is part of th ...

(or Swabian Alps), and is known for its spa and therapeutic bath.

Neighbouring communities

The following towns border Urach and are also part of the district of Reutlingen. Clockwise from the north are: Hülben, Grabenstetten, Römerstein, Gutsbezirk Münsingen, Münsingen, St. Johann and Dettingen an der Erms. Bad Urach consists of the districts Hengen (687.01 ha; 854 inhabitants, on 31 December 2005), Seeburg (220.65 ha; 302 inhabitants), Sirchingen (481.78 ha; 1031 inhabitants), Bad Urach (2,797, 89 ha; 9289 inhabitants) and Wittlingen (1362.24 ha; 1112 inhabitants). With the exception of the district Bad Urach, the neighbourhoods form simultaneously villages within the meaning of the Baden-Wuerttemberg Municipal Code. Urach includes the homestead of Güterstein. Among the districts ofHengen and Sirchingen, each include only the villages of the same name. Seeburg includes the village of Seeburg, the castle and courtyard and the village of Wittlingen, the homestead Hohenwittlingen and the individual houses, Georgenau, the pumping station Ermsgruppe XIII, including Front Albgruppe, Schanz and Villa Mühleisen. In the Hengen district is the Castle Gardena. In the district of Bad Urach are the villages Berg, Gyrenbad, Merzhausen, Hausen, Sontheim and Weiler, and in Wittlingen district are the villages Henni Fountain, Hofstetten and Winneden and Castle Baldeck.

History

In the early

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

, the ''Alb'' was already populated, and several caves in the area show evidence that they provided shelter for the inhabitants. During the

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

period, Bad Urach had an important castle. Owing to its prime location on a hill overlooking the Erms Valley, Hohenurach Castle was built around 1025. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Bad Urach (at that time only known as Urach) became a centre of power. The castle became a state prison in the late Middle Ages; the poet Philipp Nikodemus Frischlin died while trying to escape over its walls in 1590. In the 18th century, the fortress was razed to the ground by the citizenry. Around 1260, Urach became part of

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

. Nearly 100 years later, at the time when Württemberg was divided, the southern part of the region was governed from Urach, the so-called "secret capital", which was the residential home of the Dukes of Württemberg from 1442 until 1482. Count Eberhard the Bearded was born here in 1445 and returned there frequently throughout his life. Over the next several centuries, the town prospered and became a centre for

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

. It escaped serious damage during any wars and so remains in excellent historical condition. In 1867 a cousin of the king of Württemberg was created Duke of Urach but lived away at Lichtenstein Castle. Since 1985 the town has been a nationally recognized

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, Ba ...

Geology

Several million years ago, the area was actively volcanic. Due to an anomaly in the subsurface, the town has a thermal spring with water at 61 °C. The spring was developed to serve as a spa operation and mineral thermal baths. In the early part of the 21st century a geothermal project was started, to develop electricity generation and heating in the town. The project failed in 2004 due to insufficient finance.

Sights

Bad Urach possesses a late-medieval marketplace with a city hall and half-timbered houses that date from the 15th and 16th centuries. The Residenzschloss (Castle Residence), the residential home of the Counts of Württemberg-Urach where Count Eberhard the Bearded was born, contains rooms that date from the Gothic,

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, and

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

periods. The Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), one of Germany's loveliest Renaissance rooms, is particularly worth a visit. The Church of Saint Amandus dates from 1477 and was built in the Gothic style for Eberhard the Bearded. His lavish praying desk dates from 1472. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

is decorated with figures of the

saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

and

Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical peri ...

and is considered an important piece of German

stonemasonry Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using rock (geology), stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with Mortar (masonry), mortar ...

. The 1518

baptismal font A baptismal font is an Church architecture, ecclesiastical architectural element, which serves as a receptacle for baptismal water used for baptism, as a part of Christian initiation for both rites of Infant baptism, infant and Believer's bapti ...

is by the sculptor . Also of interest are the ruins of the old castle (Schloss Hohenurach) and the waterfall (Uracher Wasserfall) on the hiking trail up to it. The "round mountain" ("Runder Berg"), a former volcano, is of archaeological interest and shows an old

castle.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Bundesstraße 28 runs through the city and connects it to the west with

and

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

and to the east with Ulm. The B 465 leads from Bad Urach to

Ehingen Ehingen (Donau) (; ) is a town in the Alb-Donau (district), Alb-Donau district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, situated on the left bank of the Danube, approx. southwest of Ulm and southeast of Stuttgart. The city, like the entire district o ...

and Biberach. The Erms Valley Railway connects Bad Urach with Metzingen, and there is a connection to the Plochingen-Tübingen railway. The

Public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

is guaranteed by the Verkehrsverbund Neckar-Alb-Donau (NALDO). The city is located in the comb 221.

Court, authorities and bodies

Bad Urach has a

District Court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...

, which belongs to the Landgerichtsbezirk Tübingen and Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk Stuttgart. Furthermore, Bad Urach has a tax office (Finanzamt) and the Ermstal Clinic is a hospital. The city is also home to the Kirchenbezirk Bad Urach of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg.

Education

In the city, there are the Graf-Eberhard-Gymnasium, the Geschwister-Scholl-Realschule. Since 2012 there is, named after Barbara Gonzaga, the ''Barbara Gonzaga Community school Bad Urach '', the primary school in Wittlingen district, two special schools as well as a business school.

Tourism

Bad Urach has a far-reaching tradition in tourism and is a premier health resort and spa. The successful drilling for mineral thermal water and its development led in 1983 to the recognition as a spa, which had according to the Statistical Office of Baden-Württemberg for Bad Urach in 2012 the number of 367.344 overnight stays.

Notable people

* Gottfried von Neifen (fl. 1234–1255)

Minnesinger (; "love song") was a tradition of German lyric- and song-writing that flourished in the Middle High German period (12th to 14th centuries). The name derives from '' minne'', the Middle High German word for love, as that was ''Minnesangs m ...

(lyric poet). * Eberhard the Bearded (1445–1496), first Duke of Württemberg. * Christoph, Duke of Württemberg (1515–1568), fourth Duke of Württemberg * Hans von Ungnad (1493–1564), Habsburg nobleman, Bible printer and smuggler * Daniel Hauff, (DE Wiki) (1629–1665), legal advocate during the witch trials * Ernst Jäckh (1875–1959), journalist in GB & USA, diplomat, author and academic * Max Friz (1883–1966), one of three men responsible for the founding of

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

* Georg Joos (1894–1959), German experimental physicist * Reinhard Breymayer (born 1944), philologist and researcher into

pietism Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life. Although the movement is ali ...

* Cem Özdemir (born 1965), politician with Alliance '90/The Greens, MEP from 2004 until 2009, and Agriculture minister since 2021 * Ulrike C. Tscharre, (DE Wiki) (born 1972), German actress and spokeswoman born in the town

Sport

* Markus Pleuler (born 1970), football manager and former player who played 363 games * Marcel Schiller (born 1991), handballer who has played 39 games for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. * Marvin Pieringer (born 1999), footballer who has played over 200 games

Gallery

File:uracher_wasserfall_2003_00a_w1.jpg, Uracher Wasserfall, 2003 File:Urach1912.jpg, Urach, 1912 File:Germany Bad-Urach Moses-Font.jpg,

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

on the

in the Church of St. Amandus File: Bad Urach St. Amandus Chorgitter 307.jpg, Choir-stalls, St. Amandus church File:Bad Urach 2005 -Burg Hohenurach- by Ra Boe 10.jpg, View over Urach, taken from the castle

References

External links

{{Authority control Towns in Baden-Württemberg Reutlingen (district) Counties of the Holy Roman Empire Spa towns in Germany