Spessart Winter Wellness in Bad Orb and Art in Aschaffenburg

This time we're heading to the Spessart – and it's not far at all. Coming from the south into the great forest, a forest of superlatives even, it is after all Germany's largest contiguous mixed deciduous forest. We have known it since childhood. Not far from here, in Hanau, the Brothers Grimm were born, the fairy tale collectors – and like them, we have collected memories over all these years: the Spessart, this natural landscape between the Odenwald, Rhön and Vogelsberg, has always been the place of small escapes for people from the Rhine-Main region right through to the Würzburg area – a sea of leaves, a nature reserve with lovely valleys, streams and rivers. Saale, Main, Kinzig and Sinn. How does the old rhyme go again? Kinzig, Sinn and Main enclose the Spessart all around: the Main quadrilateral. 

Between the years we now head to Bad Orb, in the Hessian, northern Spessart. In winter in the Spessart, that used to mean: skiing, even alpine, at least cross-country. There are still some cross-country ski trails, for example in Frammersbach, around the Bavarian Schanz near Ruppertshütten and the Frankenland trail near Waldzell. In the first days of 2025, the High Spessart welcomes us with its not quite 600 metres elevation with hoar frost and later also snow. An extensive and high-quality network of walking paths invites exploration – maintained and cared for by the Spessart Association.

But we chose Bad Orb for another reason too – people come here for wellness, for relaxation. We have Hauff's "The Inn in the Spessart" with us as reading material, written almost 200 years ago. The robber novella was filmed in 1958 – a bit of robber-horror belongs here! Bad Orb is a small town with about 10,000 inhabitants in the Hessian Main-Kinzig district. It lies comfortably between the Spessart heights. We look from the Molkenberg with its watchtower across to the Wintersberg and down onto the town. And discover in it: lots of half-timbering. In the Middle Ages the town became wealthy through salt production. The "Donkey Path" led past here, the old trade and salt route. The salt obtained in Orb was shipped on the Main. Later the town came to the Principality of Aschaffenburg, in 1814 to the Kingdom of Bavaria, then to the Kingdom of Prussia. Today it is therefore Hessian, albeit near the Bavarian border.

A local history museum in the Palas of the former Bad Orb castle tells the story of the town. Unfortunately it is currently in winter hibernation. Up to 2,000 tonnes of salt were extracted in Orb in the 17th and 18th centuries – and salt still has significance here today, namely in its medical use. In 1837 the first brine spa was founded. Since 1909 Bad Orb has been a spa town.

At that time the spa park was also laid out – in the style of an English landscape garden. The landscape architect Heinrich Siesmayer, who also designed the Palmengarten in Frankfurt, created a wonderful natural ensemble here, traversed by the channelled Orbbach. Partly historic spa buildings such as the head house of the graduation tower, the mid-century reading hall with café, or the listed concert hall from 1958 give the place a special flair. The graduation tower, operated in summer, was built in 1806 and is part of the former salt works. It is the largest still-existing graduation tower in Hesse and can be used free of charge – inhaling the salt-laden air is a boon for the respiratory tract and lungs, helps with asthma and allergies. In winter a small indoor graduation tower in the rotunda of the Old Drinking and Promenade Hall takes over this function. 

Today spa operations and health are a genuine location factor in Bad Orb. Three healing springs bubble up here, the Philippsquelle, the Ludwigsquelle and the Martinusquelle – and recently a fourth was discovered and christened the Leopoldsquelle; the new spring house is currently being built. Right after our arrival we head to the Toskana-Therme, which opened in 2010. The building is architecturally a delicacy: built according to plans by Fulda architect Andreas Ollertz as a self-supporting timber construction, the thermal spa offers six water pools, some of which are fed with 32-degree warm brine, a large sauna landscape, 800 square metres of water surface, underwater massage loungers, a current channel, Ayurveda treatments, massages, a "Liquid-Sound-Temple", underwater spotlights and light effects – it is particularly beautiful at dusk to view the building from outside and experience it from within. The thermal spa is manageable in size and we particularly like that. 

The old town has substance – but there is unfortunately also vacancy and dilapidated old buildings. Currently the market square is being redesigned. Many projects are conceived and are to change the town over the coming years. There is much to do in Bad Orb. The man who is trusted with much (everyone talks about him, in the spa park or also in the old town pubs, the traditional Sudpfanne, the cool Orbbar, in the cosy Café am Marktplatz or in the chic Kowalskis im Park) is Henning Strauss, head of the workwear company Engelbert Strauss, which is based nearby and operates worldwide. Meanwhile the entrepreneur is an honorary citizen of the town. His "Alea" projects are on everyone's lips. An "Alea-Park", a Kneipp and a mini-golf facility as well as the teaching café "Botanica" have already been created. The "Alea Resort" on the edge of the spa park offers exclusive hotel suites, restaurant, spa and health services. Sports facilities in the upper spa park have been upgraded. A new school campus is also to be built on Parkstraße – and the construction of the medical bathhouse "Balnova" is also to be completed soon. Many millions have been invested under the motto: Medical Spa in Bad Orb. The town wants to reposition itself as a medical location. Meanwhile Strauss has also bought the golf course in Jossgrund – which had run into economic difficulties. The spa visionary from the Spessart also wants to create a spa and healing forest.

Bad Orb's mayor Tobias Weisbecker is enthusiastic and already speaks of a veritable Bad Orb boom. And Steffen Kempa, managing director of Bad Orb Kur GmbH, said in an interview: "Bad Orb is experiencing its renaissance right now, a powerful awakening that gives us the unique opportunity to establish ourselves as leaders among German spa towns." So one can look forward with anticipation to how the spa town will develop over the coming years. And so a winter holiday in Bad Orb goes like this: relaxation in the Toskana-Therme alternates here with extensive winter walks around the small town into the Spessart, which frames the place idyllically. The forest begins right at the town's edges. The Jagdhaus Haselruhe inn in the idyllic Haseltal is a wonderfully quiet place – unfortunately closed in the winter months. After a walk on the premium walking trail "Spessartbogen" or the four to twelve kilometre long "Spessartspuren" you already feel like taking several more sauna sessions in the thermal spa. But first a walk through the old town with the partly still well-preserved town fortifications: Franconian half-timbering radiates cosy comfort in the twilight, especially in the atmospheric Kirchgasse, where Hesse's narrowest half-timbered house stands, or in the Hauptstraße with its magnificent, richly decorated patrician houses, which still date back to the Gothic period. 

The next day we then head to the Spessart metropolis Aschaffenburg, barely more than half an hour from Bad Orb by car, already on Bavarian territory. Situated between Würzburg and Frankfurt, the picturesque Aschaffenburg on the Main is increasingly establishing itself as a city of art. Several exhibition venues here invite visitors on foot to high-calibre exhibitions – in distinctive exhibition architecture from Baroque and Classicism to the present day. Various exhibition venues currently show special exhibitions, such as the Kunsthalle Jesuit Church. The Kunsthalle is the classic in Aschaffenburg: classical modernism has its great appearance here, plus popular contemporary art – presented in the Jesuit Church Heiligste Dreifaltigkeit from the 17th century. Since 1990 the deconsecrated church has served as an exhibition venue and has been part of the network of Aschaffenburg's municipal museums since 2006. The Christian Schad Museum – direct neighbour of the Jesuit Church – only opened in 2022. All creative periods of this master of new objectivity, who lived and worked in Aschaffenburg for many years, are shown here. Schad's work can be experienced in its diversity – in the converted, listed building ensemble of the former Jesuit college. Here the history of the artist is told, but also the cultural history of the 20th century. Schad's flight in the First World War to Switzerland, the emergence of Dada in Zurich, the development of the first Schadographies, his time in Rome and Berlin, the turn towards National Socialism finally. Even better known is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who was born in Aschaffenburg on 6 May 1880. A few years ago his birthplace, the classical Kirchnerhaus on Ludwigstraße, was renovated. Since 2014 it has been a museum. The works here cover all phases of his creative work: the time of the artist group Brücke in Dresden as well as the Berlin years. And there are even more municipal art houses in Aschaffenburg: currently there are eight museums that present themselves under the umbrella brand "Aschaffenburg Municipal Museums" – in a town with only 70,000 inhabitants! In KunstLANDing, the New Art Association Aschaffenburg, advanced contemporary art is at home.

Art city Aschaffenburg! Incidentally, Aschaffenburg has recently also become a member of the city cooperation "Paths to Cranach". The Cranach Magdalene Altar from 1525 is the most impressive object in the Collegiate Museum. 

Such a cultural day is exhausting – and so we look forward to an evening in the thermal spa in Bad Orb. Wellness and culture are very close together here in the Spessart!