Bad Freienwalde

Bad Freienwalde is a spa town in the Märkisch-Oderland district of Brandenburg, in north-eastern Germany, on the Alte Oder, an old branch of the Oder, at the northwestern rim of the Oderbruch basin and the steep rise of the Barnim Plateau. It lies 15 kilometres east of Eberswalde and 50 kilometres northeast of Berlin, near the Polish border, and its municipal area includes the villages of Altranft, Altglietzen, Bralitz, Hohensaaten, Hohenwutzen, Neuenhagen and Schiffmühle. The settlement of Vrienwalde was first mentioned in a deed of 1316 and appeared as a town in 1364. A mineral spring found in 1683 was brought to the attention of the Great Elector by the alchemist Johann Kunckel, and the Kurfürstenquelle became the foundation of the town rise as a spa. From 1701 it belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia.