Bad Wildungen

Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany.

The town, which spreads out east of the Homberg, is crossed by the river Wilde, which empties into the Eder at the constituent community of Wega.

Bad Wildungen's first documentary mention came about 800 AD from the Hersfeld Monastery's goods directory under the Latin name "villa Wildungun".

According to the documentary "The End of the War in Colour", Bad Wildungen was one of the rare smattering of German towns that survived WWII relatively unscathed.

As part of municipal reform, the same was done in 1971 with Albertshausen, Armsfeld, Bergfreiheit, Braunau, Frebershausen, Hüddingen, Hundsdorf, Mandern, Odershausen and Wega.

Bad Wildungen's earliest known town seal was quite different, dating from 1258 and showing the Count of Thuringia – then the local overlord – astride a steed and kitted out as a knight.

Interested visitors should also have a look at the "Living Museum" in Odershausen, the Lapidarium (mineral display in Schloss Friedrichstein's basement vault) and the "Galerie am Kump" in Albertshausen.

Furthermore, there is a regularly held jazz festival in June, and mid-July brings Kram- und Viehmarkt – a fair with household goods and cattle markets.

Above Bad Wildungen stands a Baroque stately home, Schloss Friedrichstein, which was planned by Count Josias II in 1660 and completed between 1707 and 1714 by Prince Friedrich Anton Ulrich zu Waldeck.

Bad Wildungen's local mountain, the 518 m-high Homberg, affords the visitor an outstanding panoramic view.

The municipal area's highest mountain, however, is the Wüstegarten (675 m above sea level), located near Bergfreiheit, one of Bad Wildungen's outlying communities.

Das Paradies ("The Paradise") near Albertshausen is not simply called this; hikers will also find this unique forest towards Gellershausen and Kleinern to be something of a paradisiacal treasure.

The 167 km-long Kellerwaldsteig, awarded with the distinction of one of Germany's three finest hiking trails, begins and ends in Bad Wildungen.

One Waldeck speciality is Schepperlinge, a kind of potato pancake, traditionally served in Bad Wildungen with bacon, onions and black coffee.

The city also maintains a bus service, the BKW (Bad Wildunger Kraftwagenverkehrs- und Wasserversorgungsgesellschaft mbH), which is also responsible for the municipal water supply.

More at the fore of medical rehabilitation nowadays are orthopaedics, psychosomatic illness treatment, internal medicine, rheumatology, neurology, oncology and urology.

The Berufsakademie Bad Wildungen offers the choice of a dual course of study alternating between theoretical and practical phases.

Hatzfeld Battenberg Allendorf (Eder) Burgwald Rosenthal Gemünden (Wohra) Haina Frankenberg Frankenau Bad Wildungen Lichtenfels Korbach Willingen Diemelsee Diemelstadt Vöhl Volkmarsen Bad Arolsen Twistetal Waldeck Edertal North Rhine-Westphalia Kassel (district) Schwalm-Eder-Kreis Marburg-Biedenkopf
A drawing of Bad Wildungen by Matthäus Merian , 1655
Bad Wildungen
Altarpiece of Konrad von Soest in the Evangelical Church
Wappen des Landkreises Waldeck-Frankenberg
Wappen des Landkreises Waldeck-Frankenberg