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city
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Aargau
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Baden
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4021
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5400
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47nm=28
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8em=18
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381
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1317
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16,384
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December 2004
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wwwbadench
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is a town (Stadt) in the
Swiss Canton of
Aargau , on the left bank of the river
Limmat , 25 km N.W. of
Zürich . Permanent population (2002): 16,000.
Baden is chiefly visited by reason of its hot sulphur springs, which are mentioned by
Tacitus (''
Histories '' i. cap. 7) and were very fashionable in the
15th and
16th Centuries . They are especially efficacious in cases of gouty and rheumatic affections. They lie a little north of the old town at the river. Many
Roman remains have been found in and near the gardens of the ''Kursaal''. The town, dominated on the west by the ruined castle of Stein, is very picturesque, with its steep and narrow streets, its old wooden bridge and its one surviving gateway.
Baden has the Swiss Children's Museum. (Schweizer Kindermuseum) a good place to spend the afternoon with under 10 year olds.
http://www.kindermuseum.ch/
The castle Stein was formerly a stronghold of the
Habsburg s, but destroyed in
1415 and again in
1712 . In 1415 Baden (with the Aargau) was conquered by the Eight Swiss Confederates, whose
Bailiff inhabited the other castle, on the right bank of the Limmat, which defends the ancient bridge across the river. As the conquest of the Aargau was the first made by the Confederates, their delegates (or the federal diet) naturally met at Baden, from
1426 to about 1712, to settle matters relating to these subject lands, so that during that period Baden was really the capital of Switzerland. The diet sat in the beautifully carved diet hall in the town-hall or ''Rathaus'', which can be visited. There was also signed in
1714 the
Treaty Of Baden which put an end to the war between
France and the
Holy Roman Empire , and thus completed the
Treaty Of Utrecht (
1713 ). Baden was the capital of the
Canton Of Baden , from 1798 until 1803, when the canton of Aargau was created.
In the 19th and 20th century Baden became an industrial town, main seat of the former
Brown Boveri Company . Most industrial faculties have moved, but Baden is still the seat of many of the engineering services of
ABB and the power station engineering of
Alstom . The big industrial quarter in the north of the city is now being redeveloped into offices, shopping and pleasure facilities.
There is also a
Casino in Baden.
One mile S. of Baden, on the Limmat, is the famous
Cistercian monastery of
Wettingen (
1227 -
1841 ), with splendid old painted glass in the
Cloister s and magnificent early
17th Century carved stalls in the choir of the church. Six miles W. of Baden is the small town of
Brugg (9,500 inhabitants) in a fine position on the
Aare , and close to the remains of the Roman colony of Vindonissa (
Windisch ), as well as to the monastery (founded
1310 ) of
Koenigsfelden , formerly the burial-place of the early
Habsburg s (the castle of
Habsburg is but a short way off), still retaining much fine medieval painted glass.
Baden was the destination of the first railway in Switzerland, the ''Spanisch Brötli Bahn'' transporting the richer people from
Zürich to the baths of Baden. Today Baden is a regular stop of the railway lines and '''Zürich-
Bern '''.
The
A1 motorway tunnel
Baregg is a major junction in the area. It was undergoing construction until
2004 and has been subject to controversy. In
2003 , a third tunnel hole was opened to vehicles on the motorway.
