‘All you wear is a smile’: In one of Europe’s greatest spa towns, I stripped down for wellness

“You will be naked.”

The woman at the entrance to the “textile-free” Friedrichsbad Roman-Irish bath in Baden-Baden, Germany, mentioned this more than once.

All you wear in this neo-Renaissance, 19th-century temple to relaxation and mineral water wellness, located on the edge of the Black Forest, is a smile and your watchband-style locker key.

Our group of three women assured her that bathing in the buff was fine by us as we paid the 35-euro admission. When in Baden-Baden, do as the Romans do — or did. What we didn’t know as we climbed the grand marble staircase to the change room was just how much nakedness would be immediately apparent.

We pushed through the turnstile to see a nude 70-something man casually chatting to a spa attendant. A few lockers down, another unclad fellow. The spa once catered to female or male patrons on alternating days, but that’s been dropped in favour of mixed bathing.

Welcome to Friedrichsbad: no swimsuits, no gender segregation, no problem.

There is a sheet in each locker, and I doubt anybody would yank it off you if you chose to wear it throughout. But we’re not shy, and the birthday suits all around us became less of an issue as we relaxed through each of the 16 stations of the historic spa — or the “stations of the crotch,” as one gal pal quipped. (The 17th station, the soap massage area, was temporarily closed, a COVID holdover.)

Baden-Baden’s 12 underground springs — outputting mineral-rich waters as hot as 68 degrees Celsius, believed to ease everything from skin to respiratory conditions — have been drawing people to this small town since Roman times. Dark stones in the Marktplatz, the old market square, outline the location of the 2,000-year-old imperial baths two metres below. You can take a five-euro tour of the ruins of the Roman soldiers’ baths, which were unearthed during Friedrichsbad’s construction. They’re tucked into a corner of a covered parking lot.

Beginning in the early 19th century, the rich, royal, fashionable and famous discovered Baden-Baden. The influencers of their age popularized lengthy stays at luxe hotels as they took drinking and bathing thermal water cures and had treatments with local doctors. Local papers published daily lists of the luminaries visiting as the town earned the nickname “the summer capital of Europe.”

For its part in the history of spa culture, Baden-Baden made UNESCO’s list of “the Great Spa Towns of Europe“ — a transnational World Heritage site, inscribed in 2021, encompassing 11 famous towns/cities across seven countries. Two other German spa towns, Bad Kissingen and Bad Ems, also made the list. One of the requirements for inclusion was that the spas sparked urban development.

In Baden-Baden, “these people who came fell in love with the town and settled down here, leaving their money, building houses and churches, and these talents have found their way into arts and literature,” explained guide Katharina Koerner.

Among Baden-Baden’s elegant spa structures is the well-preserved Trinkhalle pump house, built circa 1839 to 1842. Visitors strolled the 90-metre arcade past frescoes of mermaids and gallant knights, sipping the mineral waters as an orchestra played. It wasn’t that drinking the water was better for you, Koerner said (we were told repeatedly not to drink from mineral water fountains), but “bathing dry-footed” made it much easier to show off dresses and jewelry than being up to your neck in water.

After the baths closed for the evening, Baden-Baden was a great place for the moneyed to drop their cash. Casino Baden-Baden opened in 1824 in the central Kurhaus spa building, with a trio of gambling salons dripping with gilt and done in the style of the palaces of French nobility. Ignore the slot machines and flashy showroom, and the casino salons still have the same moreish glamour of another era.

Today, the 21st-century focus on wellness keeps people coming to Baden-Baden. Besides the baths, visitors can go the private thermal waters route at the luxurious Villa Stéphanie Spa at the circa-1872 Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, where rates typically top 700 euros a night. Optional add-on packages range from dentistry to detox.

The same company that runs Friedrichsbad also operates the 4,000-square-metre Caracalla Spa, a few minutes’ walk away. Built in 1985, it’s for those who prefer their therme (hot spring) with textiles — guests need not be naked — and costs 19 euros for a two-hour stay. The noisy waterpark vibe draws a younger clientele and families, with two large outdoor and pleasantly warm mineral pools that belch bubbles and pump out waves (bathers as young as seven are welcome), and a multi-station Roman-style sauna area.

For Germans and Western Europeans, Baden-Baden remains a popular weekend getaway and keeps its small-town charms in part thanks to a tunnel that diverts through-traffic from the Autobahn. Tourism marketers are aiming at millennial travellers with a newish marketing slogan: “The good-good life.”

Everything is within walking distance in the Old Town (Altstadt), where the non-spa attractions include lovely Belle Époque buildings and chic shopping streets with high-end retailers. Avenues are framed by horse chestnut trees. Steep, winding cobblestone streets lead to hidden courtyards, pastel-coloured mansions and heritage buildings, some of which have been turned into hotels and restaurants.

Sip a hefty stein of local dark beer served by a lederhosen-wearing waiter in an open-air beer garden in the centre of town, or try local specialties like sauerbraten and plump spätzle noodles at Geroldsauer Mühle. The attractive silver-fir building houses a rustic-chic restaurant, where I’d hoped to get a slice of boozy Black Forest cake but was served a deconstructed version in a parfait glass instead. I was similarly scuppered at the historic Café König in the Old Town, which was sold out of its legendary Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.

I consoled myself with a seat on the lip of a marble fountain and a massive coffee-cream éclair from the pastry case. After all that time spent soaking in Baden-Baden’s famously healing mineral waters, I figured I could get away with an indulgence.

How to get there: Air Canada and Lufthansa operate non-stop flights from Toronto to Frankfurt. From the airport’s train station, Baden-Baden is about 90 minutes by rail. Once you arrive, the Old Town is compact and walkable, if hilly.

Where to stay: The 123-room Leonardo Royal Hotel Baden-Baden is in a quiet residential area, just about 15 minutes on foot to the Old Town.

What else to do: On the Merkur mountain, explore the ruins of the 12th-century Hohenbaden Castle, which is accessible by the Panorama Trail that goes from the Kurhaus into the Black Forest. Or take the funicular 1,200 metres to the mountaintop to watch paragliders ride the thermals.

Linda Barnard travelled as a guest of the German National Tourist Board, which did not review or approve this article.