26. February 2025
Home » Travel » Travel Reviews » Places & Sights » Exploring The Old Town of Bad Säckingen
Places & Sights

Exploring The Old Town of Bad Säckingen

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Watching a friend’s musical performance there brought me to Bad Säckingen in Southern Germany at the beginning of January 2025. The city is majorly known as to its location close to Switzerland, it is a very popular shopping and recreation place for visitors from the Southern neighbor country. However, Bad Säckingen is also simply a beautiful place with a nice historic city center. Thus, I decided to take you there in one of my Pictured Stories.

 

Bad Säckingen – Location & Traffic

Bad Säckingen is an 18,000 inhabitants town in the very South of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Divided by the River Rhine, it is right opposite of the Swiss city of Stein. The next major city is Basel in Switzerland.

Bad Säckingen is crossed by the German national route 34, so that it is rather well-accessible by car. The train station features connections along the Rhein, including a connection to Basel Badischer Bahnhof, the German rail station in Basel. There are two bridges crossing the Rhein, one of them is a footbridge.

 

Bad Säckingen Old Town – Impressions

Bad Säckingen has been mentioned for the first time in 878 A.D. However, it is believed to be a settlement during Roman times already. While the area around the train station is rather a 1970’s and 1980’s style architecture, the historic city center district is just a few footsteps away and really picturesque. The cat you see in one of the first pictures is part of a tale playing in the city. It is really fun to walk through the streets. There are many stores and restaurants. As mentioned, many of them are aiming for customers from Switzerland. You especially see that in the major supermarkets, which have many more products than what you might expect in a town of that size. There are also a couple of monuments in the city, which lead to an enjoyable time.

A visit in Bad Säckingen would not be complete without strolling along the Rhine. While car traffic is using the Fridolinsbrücke, the more iconic wooden footbridge, which is another connection between Germany and Switzerland. In the picture below, you see the Gallusturm (“Gallus Tower”) and the Diebesturm (“Thieves Tower”). They were part of the historic fortification and city walls. It is also just really nice to stroll around the river on a sunny day. There is also a hydroelectric plant, which is using the powers of the river.

 

Castle and Minster

There are a couple of sights in Bad Säckingen. I unfortunately could not visit some of them as they were closed. A key sight of the city is Schloss Schönau (“Castle Schönau”). The castle and its park are right at the River Rhine, South of the historic city center. I visited the place in January – I am sure it is even more picturesque in spring or summer.

The Fridolinsmünster (“Fridolins Minster”) is the main church in Bad Säckingen. The catholic church is at the East end of the historic city center, close to the Rhine. The original church has been built in the 14th century, but burnt down thereafter. In its current condition, it was reconstructed in the 17th or 18th century. I visited the Fridolinsmünster briefly after Christmas, so that the crib was still in display.

 

Pictured Stories (Germany)

Here are all my Pictured Stories related to Germany:

 

Religion

Religious sites, religious music – posts tagged with Religion are closely related to believing:

You might also like

Beefeater Gin Distillery Tour (London)

The View At The Palm (Dubai)

360 Chicago and TILT!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *