Bad Urach

Bad Urach is a town in the district of Reutlingen, Baden Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen, at the foot of the Swabian Jura (or Swabian Alps), and is known for its spa and therapeutic bath.

The following towns border Urach and are also part of the district of Reutlingen. Clockwise from the north are: Hülben, Grabenstetten, Römerstein, Gutsbezirk Münsingen, Münsingen, St. Johann and Dettingen an der Erms. Bad Urach consists of the districts Hengen (687.01 ha; 854 inhabitants, on 31 December 2005), Seeburg (220.65 ha; 302 inhabitants), Sirchingen (481.78 ha; 1031 inhabitants), Bad Urach (2,797, 89 ha; 9289 inhabitants) and Wittlingen (1362.24 ha; 1112 inhabitants). With the exception of the district Bad Urach, the neighbourhoods form simultaneously villages within the meaning of the Baden Wuerttemberg Municipal Code. Urach includes the homestead of Güterstein. Among the districts ofHengen and Sirchingen, each include only the villages of the same name. Seeburg includes the village of Seeburg, the castle and courtyard and the village of Wittlingen, the homestead Hohenwittlingen and the individual houses, Georgenau, the pumping station Ermsgruppe XIII, including Front Albgruppe, Schanz and Villa Mühleisen. In the Hengen district is the Castle Gardena. In the district of Bad Urach are the villages Berg, Gyrenbad, Merzhausen, Hausen, Sontheim and Weiler, and in Wittlingen district are the villages Henni Fountain, Hofstetten and Winneden and Castle Baldeck.

In the early Stone Age, the 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 had an important castle. Owing to its prime location on a hill overlooking the Erms Valley, Hohenurach Castle was built around 1025. In the Middle Ages 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 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. 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 from 1442 until 1482. Count Eberhard the Bearded 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. 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 but lived away at Lichtenstein Castle. Since 1985 the town has been a nationally recognized spa town.

Several million years ago, the area was actively volcanic. Due to an anomaly in the subsurface, the town has a thermal spring with water at 61 °C. The spring was developed to serve as a spa operation and mineral thermal baths. In the early part of the 21st century a geothermal project was started, to develop electricity generation and heating in the town. The project failed in 2004 due to insufficient finance.

Bad Urach possesses a late medieval marketplace with a city hall and half timbered houses that date from the 15th and 16th centuries. The Residenzschloss (Castle Residence), the residential home of the Counts of Württemberg Urach where Eberhard the Bearded was born, contains rooms that date from the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. The Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), one of Germany's loveliest Renaissance rooms, is particularly worth a visit. The Church of Saint Amandus dates from 1477 and was built in the Gothic style for Eberhard the Bearded. His lavish praying desk dates from 1472. The pulpit is decorated with figures of the saints and church fathers and is considered an important piece of German stonemasonry. The 1518 baptismal font is by the sculptor
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 volcano, is of archaeological interest and shows an old Alemanni castle.

Bundesstraße 28 runs through the city and connects it to the west with Reutlingen and Tübingen and to the east with Ulm. The B 465 leads from Bad Urach to Ehingen and Biberach. The Erms Valley Railway connects Bad Urach with Metzingen, and there is a connection to the Plochingen Tübingen railway. The Public transport is guaranteed by the Verkehrsverbund Neckar Alb Donau (NALDO). The city is located in the comb 221.

Bad Urach has a District Court, which belongs to the Landgerichtsbezirk Tübingen and Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk Stuttgart. Furthermore, Bad Urach has a tax office (Finanzamt) and the Ermstal Clinic is a hospital. The city is also home to the Kirchenbezirk Bad Urach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg.

In the city, there are the Graf Eberhard Gymnasium, the Geschwister Scholl Realschule. Since 2012 there is, named after Barbara Gonzaga, the Barbara Gonzaga Community school Bad Urach , the primary school in Wittlingen district, two special schools as well as a business school.

Bad Urach has a far reaching tradition in tourism and is a premier health resort and spa. The successful drilling for mineral thermal water and its development led in 1983 to the recognition as a spa, which had according to the Statistical Office of Baden Württemberg for Bad Urach in 2012 the number of 367.344 overnight stays.