Baden

Baden is a city (with about 20,000 inhabitants) in northern Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, located on the river Limmat, 25 km northeast of Aarau , the capital of the Canton of Aargau, and 23 km northwest of Zurich (➤ map)(➤ map). The capital of the Baden district in the Canton of Aargau, a spa town known since ancient times for its hot mineral waters.

Baden (also known as Baden bei Zürich or Baden im Aargau - to distinguish it from many other places called "Baden") lies on the Limmat River flowing from Lake Zurich, mostly on its left, western bank. This place was already known in ancient times - then called Aquae Helveticae - for hot sulfur mineral waters. In modern times, the first records date back to the 11th century. The city of Baden, founded by the Kyburg family in the first half of the 13th century, remained under the control of the (first) Swiss Confederation from 1415, in the years 1798-1803 it was the capital of the canton of Baden, and in 1803 it became the capital of the district in the canton of Aargau, functioning later, beginning since the second half of the 19th century, as a widely known and popular European health resort.

Spa center , with a park and infrastructure - thermal, hotel and public pools, saunas, solariums, etc. - is located in the northern part of the city, in the bend of the Limmat. Being in this area, it is worth visiting the nearby Langmatt Museum , located in a villa built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries that once belonged to the entrepreneur Sidney William Brown ( 1865-1941) and his wife, Jenny Sulzer (1871-1968), with a rich collection of paintings (primarily, but not exclusively, French Impressionist paintings), furniture and furnishings.

Other attractions of Baden include: (1) picturesque ruins of a medieval castle (Ruine Stein ), located on a hill from which there is an extensive beautiful view of the city and its surroundings (a highway runs through a tunnel under the ruins), (2) a historic wooden covered bridge called Holzbrücke from 1810 (the first bridge in this place was built in the 13th century, later replaced by several more structures), (3) standing at the eastern end of this bridge Burg Landvogteischloss containing a historical museum - Historisches Museum Baden, also occupying an added modern wing , (4) gothic city tower, Stadtturm with a clock and a decorated façade (5) Catholic parish church - Katholische Stadtpfarrkirche Maria Himmelfahrt from the second half of the 15th century, later rebuilt many times, and the chapel of St. Sebastian , with a public treasury, and (6) Stadhaus , the town hall with a beautiful historic hall known as the Tagsatzung.


While in Baden, it is worth remembering that about 2 km south of the city center there is a complex of the former Cistercian abbey, considered to be an important tourist attraction of the canton of Aargau, Kloster Wettingen, history dating back to the 13th century, with a church open to visitors, and about 10 km west of Baden, the remains of the former Königsfelden monastery with a church with Gothic stained glass windows, considered the most valuable in Switzerland.