Kursaal Bad Ems

Jacques Offenbach spent the summers between 1858 and 1870 at Bad Ems, and many of his operettas were played there during those seasons. The town's cure buildings run far deeper into the past — the Orange-Nassau bathhouse of about 1709–25 contains what is thought to be the oldest pump room in Germany — and through the nineteenth century they grew into the ensemble of Kursaal, theatre, Marmorsaal and casino that survives today. In 2021 Bad Ems was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list among the Great Spa Towns of Europe. Concerts continue in rooms built for visitors who came to take the waters and stayed for the music.