Kurhaus Bad Ems

The Kurhaus in Bad Ems stands beside a bend in the Lahn River, forming the heart of the town’s spa quarter. Built in 1715 as Nassau’s bathing house, it was later restored and enlarged in the 19th and 20th centuries. Two wings were completed instead of the planned three, with the Kesselbrunnen spring at its core. Its history includes a royal visit by Wilhelm I in 1870 that led to the Emser Depesche. Johann Gottfried Gutensohn designed the Kursaal in the 1830s, and in 1912–13 Birck oversaw a grand Neubarock renovation. Franz Vlasdeck provided the interior artworks, and the Kursaal gained a theatre, chamber-music hall and reading room. Visitors find a hotel and conference centre occupying the main building. The Kursaal now houses the casino in its former theatre and chamber-music rooms. A colonnaded walkway once linked the two parts of the complex, and the site remains a protected monument.