Bad Bentheim

Bad Bentheim (  ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim on the borders of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands roughly 15 km south of Nordhorn and 20 km northeast of Enschede. It is also a state-recognized thermal brine and sulphur spa town, hence the designation Bad (“Bath”). Also to be found in Bad Bentheim is the castle Burg Bentheim, the town’s emblem.

Geography

Extent of the municipal area

The town limit is 49 km, with a north-south reach of 14 km and an east-west reach of 12 km. The area under Bad Bentheim’s jurisdiction, along with all its constituent communities, has a total area of 100.16 km².

Neighbouring communities

Bad Bentheim, a town shaped by the Evangelical Church, belongs to Lower Saxony’s district of Bentheim. It borders on two other towns in Lower Saxony, Schüttorf and Nordhorn as well as on the more characteristically Catholic towns of Gronau and Ochtrup in North Rhine-Westphalia’s Steinfurt and Borken districts respectively. Bad Bentheim lies right on the Dutch border, its immediate neighbours on the other side being de Lutte and Losser, both Catholic places in the province of Overijssel (Twente region). Not far away lie the Dutch cities of Almelo, Enschede and Hengelo, and on the German side Lingen, Rheine, Münster and Osnabrück.

Bentheim

County of Bentheim (German: Grafschaft Bentheim) is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the Dutch provinces of Overijssel and Drenthe, the district of Emsland, and the districts of Steinfurt and Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia.

History

The District has roughly the same territory as the County of Bentheim, a state of the Holy Roman Empire that was dissolved in 1803.

Geography

The small District of Bentheim protrudes into Dutch territory. The Vechte River (Dutch Vecht) traverses the district from south to north and flows into the Netherlands.

Coat of arms

The arms are identical to the arms of the historic County of Bentheim. The origin of these arms is unknown.

Cities and municipalities

References

External links

Coordinates: 52°25′N 7°05′E / 52.42°N 7.08°E / 52.42; 7.08

County of Bentheim

The County of Bentheim (Grafschaft Bentheim) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the south-west corner of today's Lower Saxony, Germany. The county's borders corresponded largely to those of the modern administrative district (Landkreis) of Grafschaft Bentheim.

Geographically, Bentheim is composed largely of fenland, and early settlement was concentrated along the banks of the rivers which pass through the county. Deposits of Bentheim sandstone formed the basis of a profitable export trade to other parts of present-day Germany and the Netherlands.

History

The county of Bentheim was in existence by c. 1050 AD, although little is known of its history before 1115. In that year, the county passed to Count Otto, of the House of Salm. His heir and daughter, Countess Sophia, married Dirk VI, Count of Holland, and they co-ruled the county until Dirk's death in 1157. Sophia died in 1176, and the title of count passed to her son Otto I. In 1263, Bentheim annexed the County of Tecklenburg, and over time various branches of the counts of Bentheim would annex and purchase various territories in Rheda, Steinfurt, and the Netherlands. In 1277, the County of Bentheim was partitioned into Bentheim-Bentheim (containing the County of Bentheim) and Bentheim-Tecklenburg (containing the County of Tecklenburg).