Bad Bertrich 4.31

Bad Bertrich is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Ulmen, whose seat is in the like-named town. The municipality is a state-owned spa (Staatsbad) and a health resort (Kurort).GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the southern Eifel in the Üßbach valley near the Moselle.Constituent communitiesBad Bertrich’s Ortsteile are the main centre, also called Bad Bertrich, and the outlying centre of Kennfus.HistoryEven as long ago as Roman Emperors Valentinian’s and Gratian’s time, stately bathing houses were being built in Bertriacum. In 1097, Bad Bertrich had its first documentary mention in an ownership document from Archbishop Egilbert of Trier. In 1476, the village became an Electoral-Trier state-owned spa. Prince Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, the last Elector of Trier, had the little Electoral palace built here between 1785 and 1787, and used it as a summer seat and a hunting lodge. Beginning in 1794, Bad Bertrich lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna, whereupon it became a Prussian state-owned spa. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. On 1 January 1975, the until then self-administering municipality of Kennfus was amalgamated with Bad Bertrich.