Bad Ems is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the county seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a bathing resort on the river Lahn. Bad Ems is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde („collective municipality“) Bad Ems.
The town is built on both sides of the River Lahn, the natural border between the Taunus and the Westerwald, two parts of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. The town and its outer districts are also within the Nassau Nature Reserve.
The town is linked to a view point at the Bismarckturm (Bismarck Tower) by the Kurwaldbahn funicular railway.
In Roman times, a castle was built at Bad Ems as part of the Upper Germanic Limes, but today not much of the structure remains. In the woods around the town, however, there are distinct traces of the former Roman border.
The town was first mentioned in official documents in 880 and received its town charter in 1324. The Counts of Nassau and the Counts of Katzenelnbogen rebuilt the bath. The high noble Counts loved…