Aachen - Elisenbrunnen

Aachen, the westernmost city in Germany. Due to its numerous thermal springs, Aachen has been a bathing and spa town since ancient times. Even the Romans used the hot springs to run spas.

Pepin the Short had a castle residence built in the town, due to the proximity of the hot springs and also for strategic reasons between the Rhineland and northern France. Charlemagne´s coronation as king of the Franks took place here in 768. Aachen became the preferred Imperial residence of Emperor Charlemagne. He spent most winters in Aachen between 792 and his death in 814.

At the end of the 17th century, Aachen became a "fashionable spa" frequented by crowned heads and other celebrities.

In 1819, the Aachen City Council decided to build a representative building in which the thermal water from the "Kaiserquelle" (imperial spring) could be dispensed to spa guests. Financial shortages of the city slowed down the building process, so the building, named "Elisenbrunnen" after the daughter of Bavarian King Maximilian I, was finally completed in 1828.

The celebrities who drank the water of the Kaiserquelle as spa guests are commemorated by marble plaques in the hall, which were installed in 1883. Among them are Peter the Great, Frederick the Great, Giacomo Casanova, Count Grigory Orlov and George Frederick Handel.

During World War II, the Elisenbrunnen was almost completely destroyed by bombing was faithfully reconstructed in the early 1950s following the plans of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who was one of the original architects.