Area
129.97 km²
Population
22,475

Bad Mergentheim (Mergentheim until 1926) is a town in the Main-Tauber district in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

The most interesting sight in Bad Mergentheim is the Deutschordenschloss, the medieval castle where the Teutonic Knights once had their home base. It is a complex of buildings built over a period of eight hundred years. The first buildings of the castle were probably already erected in the 12th century. The castle was expanded in the late 16th century under Grand Master Walter von Cronberg. Over the course of time a representative Renaissance complex was built by connecting the individual buildings in the inner palace courtyard to a closed ring of buildings. In 1574, the main architect, Blasius Berwart, also constructed the spiral staircase between the west and north wing still famous today. Today the castle houses the Deutschordensmuseum (Museum of the Teutonic Order).
The castle complex is dominated by the Schlosskirche (Castle Church), built in 1730 in Baroque style. Its Rococo interior features elaborate ceiling frescos by the court painter Nikolaus Gottfried Stuber, depicting The Defense of Faith, the Glorification of the Cross in Heaven and on Earth and the Emperor Constantine's Vision of the Cross. Almost 200 years ago the Schlosskirche became an Evangelische Kirche or Protestant church.