Van Wert is a city in and the county seat of Van Wert County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio nearly 77 mi (123 km) SW of Toledo and 34 mi (54 km) SE of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The population was 10,846 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Van Wert Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Lima-Van Wert-Wapakoneta, Ohio Combined Statistical Area.
Van Wert is named for Isaac Van Wart, one of the captors of Major John André in the American Revolutionary War. A middle of peony cultivation, Van Wert has hosted the annual Van Wert Peony Festival on and off past 1902. Van Wert is home to the first county library in the United States, the Brumback Library. It in addition to has a well-to-do community art center, the Wassenburg Art Center, and the award-winning Van Wert Civic Theatre. The house office of Central Insurance Companies is located in Van Wert.

Van Wert was surveyed in 1824 by Captain James Riley, who was settled by the direction to survey lands purchased from Native Americans under a treaty in 1818. It was incorporated as a town in 1848 and was chartered as a city in 1903.

The town is located in an Place originally known as the Black Swamp. Early pioneers had to unity with swampy ground, mud, and malaria. They persevered, draining the swamp for agriculture and eventually reclaiming enough teetotal land to assert the town. Van Wert was the birthplace of aviation pioneer Walter Hinton and the famous baritone Charles W. Clark.

At one point, Van Wert was the lonesome place in the world producing Liederkranz cheese. This trenchant dairy product was made at the now-closed Borden plant.