Fountain Courtyard

Upon entering the Sprudelhof, the visitor is fascinated. From the upper steps of the large open staircase between two gatehouses, the view of Bad Nauheim's landmark opens up. Bright white walls with ornaments carved in shell limestone invite you to take a stroll through the bathing facilities of the turn of the century. Large clock towers tower above the buildings. In the centre there is a monumental basin with bubbling fountains, which is surrounded by clearly designed arcades.

In the Sprudelhof, the visitor immediately senses the history of Bad Nauheim as a world spa. The spa complex was built between 1905 and 1911 in art nouveau style. It comprised six bathhouses with waiting rooms and a total of 265 bathing cells, two administrative buildings, which form a courtyard-like complex open to the spa gardens and in the centre of which two characteristic whirlpools can still be found today. What is special about Bad Nauheim's Art Nouveau is that everything is still preserved in its original form - waiting rooms, courtyards and the bathtubs in Bathhouse 3 take visitors back to the time around 1900.

Even when viewing the interior, the special Art Nouveau style of Bad Nauheim can be found, where the reference to water is always seen as a health-giving force. Thus the bath houses and jewellery courtyards reveal one gem after the other: Ceramic masks, fountains made of honey-coloured terracotta, bubbles of carbonic acid, mermaids, wave ornaments and seahorses.

Important representatives of the artists' colony on Darmstadt's Mathildenhöhe, who were committed to Art Nouveau, took over the new construction of the Bad Nauheim bathing facilities at the beginning of the 20th century. The architect Wilhelm Jost gave the Sprudelhof its shape. Many renowned artists contributed to the artistic design - including Jakob Julius Scharvogel, Wilhelm Kleukens, Albin Müller and Heinrich Jobst. In the process, they created a total work of art which today represents the largest closed Art Nouveau ensemble in Europe.