Celebrity Travel
Baden-Baden Has Been Europe's Discreet Aristocratic Retreat Since the 1800s
A 19th-century spa town that drew Russian and European aristocracy to its casino and thermal baths has kept much of that old-money character intact, long after most of its contemporaries moved on.
Sep 25, 2026 · BigTravel.in
Baden-Baden's reputation as a resort for European high society dates to the early 19th century, when its thermal springs, already used since Roman times, drew an increasingly wealthy clientele from across the continent. What set the town apart from other spa destinations was its casino, opened in 1838 by the Frenchman Jacques Bénazet inside the neoclassical Kurhaus, which became one of the era's most fashionable gambling rooms and gave Baden-Baden a second identity as a social capital, not just a medical one.
A golden age that left its mark
Through the 18th to early 20th centuries, Baden-Baden's "golden age" drew a roster that included Queen Victoria, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Hector Berlioz, along with a large seasonal community of Russian aristocrats, for whom the town built an Orthodox church still standing today. Dostoevsky's own losses at the casino tables are widely said to have fed directly into his novella The Gambler. Marlene Dietrich is often quoted describing it as "the most beautiful casino in the world, and I should know, because I've been to them all", a line the town still likes to repeat.
The baths outlasted the gamblers
Friedrichsbad, the town's Roman-Irish bathhouse, opened in 1877 and remains in operation on a multi-stage bathing circuit largely unchanged since. It, more than the casino, is what has kept Baden-Baden's old-money clientele returning generation after generation, since a cure at the baths was, and to some extent still is, treated as a fixture of the European social season rather than a wellness trend.
Music, racing and a season that still exists
Baden-Baden's Festspielhaus, opened in 1998 and among Europe's largest opera and concert houses outside Paris and Vienna, keeps the town on the international classical calendar, while nearby Iffezheim's Grand Week horse races, run since the mid-19th century, still pull in a well-heeled crowd each autumn. Between the two, and the baths, Baden-Baden has kept a version of its 19th-century season alive longer than most European spa towns managed to.
Traveller tips
- Baden-Baden is reached via Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport or a roughly three-hour train journey from Frankfurt.
- Friedrichsbad's bathing circuit is mixed-gender on most days; check the schedule in advance if that matters to your plans.
- The casino keeps a smart dress code in its main gaming rooms, stricter still in the historic Bénazet rooms.
- Iffezheim's races run in spring and autumn meets; book accommodation well ahead, as the town fills up.
Where this is
Baden-Baden, Germany