Bad Bentheim (; ) is a town in the southwestern part of 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 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. Constituent communities The town comprises the centres of Achterberg, Bardel, Gildehaus, Hagelshoek, Holt und Haar, Sieringhoek, Waldseite and Westenberg. History Bad Bentheim's first documentary mention came about 1050 under the name Binithem. There are various etymologies put forth for the town's name. It could refer to the rushes (Binsen in German) that grew on boggy land in the area in earlier times. It is also supposed by some, as with the Dutch region of Twente, that the name could go back to the Tubanti. Bad Bentheim, a former count's residence, looks back on a history rich in tradition. For centuries, this market town was the hub of the like-named county (Grafschaft) of Bentheim. In 1945, the British occupational authorities stripped “brown Bentheim” of its district seat and transferred it to the working-class town of Nordhorn, which was more centrally located. The town's emblem is the mighty castle of the Counts of Bentheim, the Burg Bentheim, which was first mentioned in a document from 1116. About 1711, curative sulphur springs were discovered, from which grew the spa with its thermal brine