Photo by Mr.Nostalgic, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
🇩🇪 Germany · Hesse, Rhine Valley
Photo by Mr.Nostalgic, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
🇩🇪 Germany · Hesse, Rhine Valley
♨ Temperature
66°C
⛰ Altitude
117 m
⚗ pH
5.7
💧 TDS
8500 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
540 L/s
📅 Established
Roman era (Aquae Mattiacae)
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Wiesbaden's 26 thermal springs were known to the Romans as Aquae Mattiacae. The Kochbrunnen (Boiling Spring) is the most famous, emerging at 66°C and highly saline with sodium chloride. The waters are among the hottest and saltiest in Central Europe. Wiesbaden became the fashionable spa of 19th-century German high society; Dostoyevsky, Wagner, and Brahms all visited. Part of the Great Spas of Europe UNESCO Heritage inscription.
| Sodium Chloride | 5600 mg/L |
| Calcium | 380 mg/L |
| Sulphate | 720 mg/L |
| Bicarbonate | 420 mg/L |
| Lithium | 2.4 mg/L |
Wiesbaden's hot springs were documented by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD as Aquae Mattiacae — the thermal waters of the Mattiaci tribe. The town's 26 hot springs are inscribed as part of the Great Spas of Europe UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021). The Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme (1913) and the Kurhaus (1907) are masterpieces of early 20th-century Wilhelmine architecture.
Wiesbaden was the Nice of the North — the fashionable thermal destination of 19th-century German aristocracy, artists, and writers. Fyodor Dostoyevsky gambled and wrote here; Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner composed here; and Kaiser Wilhelm II made it his preferred spa. The tradition of Kurkonzerte (spa concerts) established a model of cultured leisure that spread across Europe.
Wiesbaden's 26 hot springs emerge naturally under their own artesian pressure — a geological phenomenon dependent on the intact Taunus mountain recharge zone, actively protected as a water catchment area. The city manages groundwater extraction within strict hydrogeological limits. As part of the Great Spas of Europe UNESCO commitment, Wiesbaden participates in a cross-European spring monitoring and conservation programme.
Phone+49 611 31 27 80
Websitewww.wiesbaden.de/thermalquellen
AddressKochbrunnenplatz, 65183 Wiesbaden, Germany