Bad Urach
Encyclopedia
Bad Urach is a town in the district of Reutlingen
Reutlingen (district)
Reutlingen , nicknamed "Das Tor zur Schwäbischen-Alb" , is a district in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany....

, Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen
Reutlingen
Reutlingen is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828....

, at the foot of the Swabian Alb
Swabian Alb
The Swabian Alps or Swabian Jura is a low mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending 220 km from southwest to northeast and 40 to 70 km in width. It is named after the region of Swabia....

, and is known for its spa
Spa town
A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...

 and therapeutic bath
Mineral spa
Mineral spas are resorts developed around naturally occurring mineral spring locales.- Origins :Spas grew in reputation in the nineteenth century on into the late middle-twentieth century for their purported healing or healthful benefits to those wealthy enough to partake of their waters...

.

History

In the early Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

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

During the Alemanni period Bad Urach was an important castle. Owing to its prime location on a hill overlooking the Erms Valley, Hohenurach Castle was built around 1025, and in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 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
Philipp Nikodemus Frischlin
Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin , German philologist, poet, playwright, mathematician, and astronomer, was born at Erzingen, today part of Balingen in Württemberg, where his father was parish minister.- Life :He was educated as a scholar of "Tübinger Stift" at the university of Tübingen, where in 1568...

 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
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

. 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
Rulers of Württemberg
This is a list of the rulers of the German state of Württemberg, originally a county and eventually a kingdom until the ruling dynasty was overthrown in 1918.- Counts of Württemberg to 1495 :* Konrad I 1089–1122...

 from 1442 until 1482. Count Eberhard the Bearded
Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg
Eberhard I of Württemberg . From 1459 till 1495 he was Count Eberhard V. From July 1495 he was the first Duke of Württemberg. He is also known as Eberhard im Bart ....

 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
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...

. 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
Duke of Urach
The title Duke of Urach was created in the Kingdom of Württemberg for Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander Ferdinand, Count of Württemberg on 28 March 1867, with the style of HSH."Urach" is pronounced Oo-raakh -Family:...

, but lived 21 kilometres (13 mi) away at Lichtenstein Castle
Lichtenstein Castle
Lichtenstein Castle is situated on a cliff located near Honau in the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.Historically there has been a castle on the site since around 1200. It was twice destroyed, once in the Reichskriegs war of 1311 and again by the city-state of Reutlingen in 1381...

.

Since 1985 the town has been a nationally recognized spa town
Spa town
A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...

.

Sights

Bad Urach possesses a late-medieval marketplace with a city hall and half-timbered houses
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

 that date from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Residenzschloss (Castle Residence), the residential home of the Counts of Württemberg-Urach
Rulers of Württemberg
This is a list of the rulers of the German state of Württemberg, originally a county and eventually a kingdom until the ruling dynasty was overthrown in 1918.- Counts of Württemberg to 1495 :* Konrad I 1089–1122...

 where Eberhard the Bearded was born, contains rooms that date from the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

, Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

, and Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 periods. The Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), one of Germany's loveliest Renaissance rooms, is particularly worth a visit.

The Church of Saint Amand
Saint Amand
Saint Amand or Amandus was a French Christian saint, one of the great Christian Saints of Flanders.-Biography:...

us
dates from 1477 and was built in the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 style for Eberhard the Bearded. His lavish praying desk dates from 1472. The pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

 is decorated with figures of the saints and church fathers
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...

 and is considered an important piece of German stonemasonry
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...

. The 1518 baptismal font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...

 is by the sculptor Christoph von Urach.

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 vulcano, is of archeological interest and shows an old Alemanni castle.

Famous people

  • Gottfried von Neifen (beginning of 13th-c.–ca. 1255), Minnesinger
    Minnesang
    Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. People who wrote and performed Minnesang are known as Minnesingers . The name derives from the word minne, Middle High German for love which was their main...

  • Eberhard the Bearded
    Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg
    Eberhard I of Württemberg . From 1459 till 1495 he was Count Eberhard V. From July 1495 he was the first Duke of Württemberg. He is also known as Eberhard im Bart ....

     (1445–1496), first Duke of Württemberg
  • Christoph
    Christoph, Duke of Württemberg
    Christoph of Württemberg, Duke of Württemberg ruled as Duke of Württemberg from 1550 until his death in 1568....

     (1515–1568), fourth Duke of Württemberg
  • Daniel Hauff (1629–1665), legal advocate during the witch trials
    Witch-hunt
    A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...

  • Max Friz
    Max Friz
    Max Friz was a German mechanical engineer specializing in engine design. He was the key contributor of engine design and innovation that led to the founding of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG in 1917.-Early life:...

     (1883–1966), one of three men responsible for the founding of BMW
    BMW
    Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

  • Georg Joos (1894–1959), physicist
  • Reinhard Breymayer (born 1944), philologist
  • Günter Parche (born 1954), criminal
  • Cem Özdemir
    Cem Özdemir
    Cem Özdemir is a German politician. He is co-chairman of the German political party Alliance '90/The Greens, together with Claudia Roth...

     (born 1965), politician with Bündnis 90/Die Grünen
    Alliance '90/The Greens
    Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

  • Ulrike C. Tscharre (born 1972), actor
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