Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in the world with buildings on it.Brückenhäuser, Alte Nahebrücke, Neustadt |Bad Kreuznach on www.romantic-germany.info (in English). Retrieved 14 June 2018.

The town is located in the Nahe River wine region, renowned both nationally and internationally for its wines, especially from the Riesling, Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau grape varieties.

Bad Kreuznach does not lie within any , even though it is the seat of the Bad Kreuznach (Verbandsgemeinde). The town is the seat of several courts, as well as federal and state authorities. Bad Kreuznach is also officially a große kreisangehörige Stadt ("large town belonging to a district"), meaning that it does not have the district-level powers that kreisfreie Städte ("district-free towns/cities") enjoy. It is, nonetheless, the district seat, and also the seat of the state chamber of commerce for Rhineland-Palatinate. It is classed as a middle centre with some functions of an upper centre, making it the administrative, cultural and economic hub of a region with more than 150,000 inhabitants.

Geography Location

Bad Kreuznach lies between the Hunsrück, Rhenish Hesse and the North Palatine Uplands, some as the crow flies south-southwest of Bingen am Rhein. It lies at the mouth of the Ellerbach, where it empties into the lower Nahe.

Neighbouring municipalities Clockwise from the north, Bad Kreuznach's neighbours are the municipalities of Bretzenheim, Langenlonsheim, Gensingen, Welgesheim, Zotzenheim, Sprendlingen, Badenheim (these last five lying in the neighbouring Mainz-Bingen district), Biebelsheim, Pfaffen-Schwabenheim, Volxheim, Hackenheim, Frei-Laubersheim, Altenbamberg, Traisen, Hüffelsheim, Rüdesheim an der Nahe, Roxheim, Hargesheim and Guldental.

Constituent communities Bad Kreuznach's outlying Ortsbezirke or Stadtteile are Bosenheim, Ippesheim, Planig, Winzenheim and Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg.

Climate

Yearly precipitation in Bad Kreuznach amounts to 517 mm, which is very low, falling into the lowest third of the precipitation chart for all of Germany. Only at 5% of the German Weather Service's weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is January. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.8 times what it is in January. Precipitation varies only slightly. At only 7% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded.

History Antiquity As early as the 5th century BC, there is conclusive evidence that there was a Celtic settlement within what are now Bad Kreuznach's town limits. About 58 BC, the area became part of the Roman Empire and a Roman vicus came into being here, named, according to legend, after a Celt called Cruciniac, who transferred a part of his land to the Romans for them to build a supply station between Mainz (Mogontiacum) and Trier (Augusta Treverorum). Kreuznach lay on the Roman road that led from Metz (Divodurum), by way of the Saar crossing near Dillingen-Pachten (Contiomagus) and the Vicus Wareswald, near Tholey to Bingen am Rhein (Bingium).It ran somewhat like this: Metz (Divodurum), Dillingen-Pachten, Lebach, Wareswald near Tholey, Wolfersweiler, Heimbach, Baumholder, Winterhauch near Idar-Oberstein-Struth/Neuweg, Sien (Höhe), Schmidthachenbach, Becherbach bei Kirn, Hundsbach, Bärweiler, Bad Sobernheim, Waldböckelheim, Mandel, Bad Kreuznach, Bingen (Bingium); cf. Jos. H. Friedlich: Römisches Denkmal bei Schweinschied. In: Jahrbücher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande. 4 (1844), S. 94–106, bes. 94; Ernst Schmidt (publisher); Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt: Forschungen über die Römerstrassen etc. im Rheinlande. In: Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande. Band 31 (1861), S. 1–220, bes. S. 170–197; Josef Hagen: Römerstrassen der Rheinprovinz. 2. Auflage. K. Schroeder, Bonn 1931, S. 390–398; Winfried Dotzauer: Geschichte des Nahe-Hunsrück-Raumes von den Anfängen bis zur Französischen Revolution. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, S. 38, u. a. The "Alte Römerstraße" ("Old Roman Road") of the Pfälzerwald-Verein (hiking club) runs from Kirn to Meisenheim, largely on the original alignment. About AD 250, an enormous (measuring 81 × 71 m), luxurious palace, unique to the lands north of the Alps, was built, in the style of a peristyle villa. It contained 50 rooms on the ground floor alone. Spolia found near the Heidenmauer ("Heathen Wall") have led to the conclusion that there were a temple to either Mercury or both Mercury and Maia and a Gallo-Roman provincial theatre.cf. Cruciniacum (?), Bad Kreuznach (Germania Superior) on the website "Theatrum" of the Direktion Landesarchäologie Mainz (Online, in German). According to an inscription and tile plates that were found in Bad Kreuznach, a vexillatio of the Legio XXII Primigenia was stationed there. In the course of measures to shore up the Imperial border against the Germanic Alemannic tribes who kept making incursions across the limes into the Empire, an auxiliary castrum was built in 370 under Emperor Valentinian I.

Middle Ages