Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
We've compiled the best of the best in The Rhineland - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Southeast of the cathedral and the site of the city's tourist-information center is an arcaded, neoclassical structure built in 1822. The central pavilion contains two fountains with thermal water—the hottest north of the Alps—that is reputed to help cure a wide range of ailments in those who drink it. If you can brave a gulp of the sulfurous water, you'll be emulating the likes of Dürer, Frederick the Great, and Charlemagne.
No less than 15 of Wiesbaden's 26 springs converge at the steaming Kochbrunnen Fountain, where the warm, salty, but (in theory) healthful waters are there for the tasting. First mentioned in 1366, the spring produces around 360 liters of 66°C (151°F), sodium chloride-rich water every single minute. As well as being used to medicinal purposes, the water is also used to heat the city's Stadt Wiesbaden (New Town Hall) building. The fountain square is one of the town's loveliest, flanked by grand old hotel buildings.
