Bad Iburg (; Westphalian: ''Bad Ibig'') is a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, B ...

in the district of Osnabrück, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. It is situated in the

Teutoburg Forest The Teutoburg Forest ( ; german: Teutoburger Wald ) is a range of low, forested hills in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Until the 17th century, the official name of the hill ridge was Osning. It was first renamed th ...

, 16 km south of

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

. Bad Iburg is also the name of a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

which includes the town and four outlying centres: Glane, Ostenfelde, Sentrup and Visbeck. The most important building is Schloss Iburg above the town. It is a complex of a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

which was the residence of the bishops of

for six hundred years and a former

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

of the

Order of Saint Benedict The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also sometimes called the Black Monk ...

History

Bad Iburg was first mentioned in 753 in a Frankish document. In 772 the

Frankish King The Franks, Germanic-speaking peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dukes and reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Merovingians, who c ...

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...

captured the “Royal castle Iburg”, from his chief antagonist, the

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

leader

Widukind Widukind, also known as Wittekind, was a leader of the Saxons and the chief opponent of the Frankish king Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785. Charlemagne ultimately prevailed, organized Saxony as a Frankish province, massacred th ...

. In a lasting period of struggles the ownership changed between Franks and Saxons. Frankish troops finally regained the castle in 783. Bad Iburg became of more than local importance in the 11th century when Bishop Benno I (1052–1067) built a new castle on the ruins of the first fortification. This castle was also ruined so Benno I's successor Bishop Benno II of Osnabrück (1068–1088) built another castle. He also founded a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery, the first twelve monks came from

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

. An interesting feature of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Clemens is the

hagioscope A hagioscope (from Gr. ''άγιος'', holy, and ''σκοπεῖν'', to see) or squint is an architectural term denoting a small splayed opening or tunnel at seated eye-level, through an internal masonry dividing wall of a church in an obliqu ...

, which allowed lepers to view the service from outside. Bishop Benno II was buried in St. Clemens, the monastery's church. About 1100, after a large fire in Osnabrück, the castle became the residence of Osnabrück’s bishops. This period ended when Ernest Augustus, Elector of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

& Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Protestant Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück built a

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

castle in Osnabrück to which he and his family moved in 1673. He added the small Protestant church Evangelisch-lutherische Schlosskirche to the Iburg castle, thus the complex of castle and monastery has had two churches, Protestant and Catholic, since the 17th century. In 1668 Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the only daughter of Ernest Augustus and his wife

Sophia of the Palatinate Sophia of Hanover (born Princess Sophia of the Palatinate; 14 October 1630 – 8 June 1714) was the Electress of Hanover by marriage to Elector Ernest Augustus and later the heiress presumptive to the thrones of England and Scotland (later Gre ...

, was born in Schloss Iburg. She became the first Queen of Prussia. Of special importance is the castle's Rittersaal (hall of knights). The ceiling in pseudo-architecture was painted by Andrea Alovisii. The monastery site has a baroque building designed by Johann Conrad Schlaun in

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

Adolph Hane’s (1706–1768) time. The monastery was active until 1803 when it was secularisated by the

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

. In 1534 Bad Iburg was involved in the

Münster Rebellion Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state dis ...

when six

Anabaptist Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...

s were captured on their way from Münster to Osnabrück and imprisoned in the octagonal tower of the castle called the ''Bennoturm'' (Benno's Tower). Five of them died during torture or were executed; the sixth was set free after betraying the plans of

John of Leiden John of Leiden (born Johan Beukelszoon; 2 February 1509 – 22 January 1536) was a Dutch Anabaptist leader. In 1533 he moved to Münster, capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, where he became an influential prophet, turned the city into ...

, the leader of the Anabaptists. In 1910 the crash of the

zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

''LZ7 Deutschland'' near Bad Iburg brought international attention. The airship had had its maiden voyage on 19 June 1910, and nine days later was on a pleasure trip to popularize the zeppelin. On board were 19 journalists, among them two reporters of well-known British newspapers. In bad weather, the crew decided to go to

, passing over the Teutoburg Forest. The airship crashed into Mount Limberg on 28 June 1910, just after 5 p.m. Nobody was injured. A monument with a portrait of Count

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (german: Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name soon became synonymous with airships a ...

was erected on Mount Limberg after the crash, the inscription reads, ''Trotzdem vorwärts'' (Ahead nevertheless). On 18 January 1962 an aeroplane from the British Royal Air Force crashed on the hill of the Dörenberg. The two pilots aged 24 and 26 years old, died. There is a monument at the Dörenberg in memory of the accident. File:BadIburgSchlossRittersaal.JPG, The castle's Rittersaal (hall of knights), paintings by Andrea Alovisii File:BadIburgSchlossSchlaun.JPG, Baroque monastery designed by Johann Conrad Schlaun File:BadIburgSchlossBennoturm.JPG, Bennoturm at the castle where anabaptists were imprisoned File:Trotzdem vorwärts groß.jpg, Monument on Mount Limberg commemorating the crash of LZ7

Mayors

The current mayor is Daniel Große-Albers (independent), elected in 2021. He succeeded Annette Niermann (Alliance 90/The Greens), who was elected mayor in 2014.''Annette Niermann ist Bad Iburgs neue Bürgermeisterin.''
In: ''Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung,'' 24. Februar 2014. She was the successor of Drago Jurak.

Museums

Bad Iburg has three museums, Schlossmuseum mit Münzkabinett, the castle museum, which includes a

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also incl ...

department, the Uhrenmuseum (a clock museum), and Averbecks Speicher, a museum of local history in a former farm’s storehouse in Glane. File:BadIburgGlaneAverdiekAnlage.jpg, Museum Averbecks Speicher File:BadIburgUhrenmuseum.JPG, Uhrenmuseum

Churches

The Fleckenskirche St. Nikolaus dates from the 13th century. The Roman Catholic Church is the oldest

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

in the Osnabrück district. St. Jakobus der Ältere in Glane was erected in 1904/1905. The Roman Catholic Church in

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

contains a pietà from 1420. St. Clemens in the castle complex was the church of theBenedictine monastery. A

was rediscovered. The Evangelische Schlosskirche which is also situated in the castle complex is the only Lutheran church in Bad Iburg. File:BadIburgFleckenskirche.JPG, Fleckenskirche St. Nikolaus File:BadIburgKircheGlane.jpg, St. Jakobus der Ältere in Glane File:BadIburgSchlossKlosterkircheHagioskop.JPG, Hagioscope at St. Clemens File:BadIburgSchlossEvKirche.JPG, Entrance of Evangelische Schlosskirche

Buildings

The Jagdschlösschen (hunting château), also known as Altes Forsthaus Freudenthal, was erected in 1595 by prince bishop Philipp Sigismund von Wolfenbüttel. The Schlossmühle, the castle's mill, was also erected by Philipp Sigismund. The Gografenhof, a classicism building, is used as the town hall since 1967. The kurhaus (spa facility/ resort) was opened in 1967 and torn down in 2010 following great local community debate (the area is now a grassed field and mainly used for local community events such as Schuetzenfest). Burg Scheventorf is a former water castle built in 1552, but its history dates from the 14th century. It is situated south of the town centre. Nearby Schleppenburg which was destroyed was also a water castle.

Sculptures

Bad Iburg has a number of sculptures made by Hans Gerd Ruwe from Osnabrück. These are the sculpture of Bishop Benno II, founder of the monastery, near the town hall, the Handwerkerbrunnen (craftsmen's fountain) in Große Straße, and the Trommlerbrunnen (drummer boy's fountain) in Glane. The Trommlerbrunnen reminds of the conferment of becoming a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in 1764. File:BadIburgBennoII.JPG, Bishop Benno II File:BadIburgHandwerkerbrunnen.jpg, Handwerkerbrunnen File:BadIburgGlaneTrommlerbrunnen.jpg, Trommlerbrunnen

Personality

Friedrich Wilhelm Weidemann - Sophie Charlotte, Königin von Preußen

Sons and daughters of the town

* Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (1668-1705), first queen of Prussia * William Westmeyer (1829-1880), composer and pianist

Personalities associated with the city

* Bishop Benno II (around 1020-1088) founded the Benedictine monastery. He was buried in the Catholic castle church in 1088 * Eitel Frederick von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1582-1625), Bishop of Osnabrück, died in 1625 in Schloss Iburg

References

{{Authority control Osnabrück (district) Members of the Hanseatic League Spa towns in Germany