Baden-Baden is a Black Forest spa town whose casino opened in the 1820s inside the Kurhaus, a colonnaded assembly building at the centre of the resort. The gaming rooms were decorated in French style and have been preserved, which is why the venue is routinely described as the most ornate in Europe.
The town retains the full nineteenth-century apparatus of a European cure resort: thermal baths, a racecourse at Iffezheim, a festival hall and parkland along the Oos. Jacket and tie are expected in the classic rooms, and guided tours run in the mornings before gaming begins.
