Aargau

Our personal travel and photo guide for Switzerland

Wow - tomorrow is our silver wedding anniversary! We married 25 years ago in this beautiful castle in Lenzburg. In honour of the occasion, this blog covers our home canton. Learn about the person from Aargau who became King of the Roman Empire, Napoleon’s role in putting Aargau in the centre of Switzerland, where to find the smallest city in Switzerland, and why Aargau is the flattest canton in Switzerland among other facts.

Let’s start with Bremgarten where I (Aaron) spent my first school years and where I used to take an air mattress down the wild waters which was rather exiting. Nowadays we would do it the more peaceful way and float downstream to Mellingen in the much calmer waters. Bremgarten is a beautiful medieval town upon the river Reuss. This area was under control of the Habsburg family and the people had to fight against the Eidgenossen at Moorgarten (1315).

There was another less famous battle of Dättwil/Baden in 1351 against Zurich. Zurich plundered the villages of Gebenstorf and Birmenstorf on December 26 but on their way back with their stolen Christmas presents they had to stand a battle. Maybe this is the origin of our interesting relationship between the two cantons? Today, Baden offers almost everything the big neighbour Zurich has: there’s good shopping, cinemas, restaurants, bars, and theatres. The town has a great vibe and the people are relaxed and friendly.  

The Habsburg dynasty – with a lion in their emblem – started almost 1000 years ago from a little castle called Habsburg in the vicinity of Brugg. Their power in Aargau ended in 1415 when they were defeated by the Swiss Confederation. The ruins of the castle in Baden represent this fall and most of Aargau was turned into subject territory of Bern.

Despite this defeat the Habsburg's power was on the rise and is still famous today. The family already left their original home and moved to Vienna at around 1230. There Rudolf I was soon crowned King of the Roman Empire and the family's power continued for another 500 years ending with WW1 in 1918.

From our home in Gebenstorf we can see the castle in the distance. Here you find another castle of a different kind: the water castle or Wasserschloss. It’s where the 3 rivers Aare, Reuss and Limmat flow together with water from 40% of Switzerland’s surface and with 50% more water than the Rhine a few kilometers further north. There’s also a beautiful place at the Reuss where people can relax, enjoy a barbecue, play volleyball and swim safely. You can see the area with the Jura mountains and the black forest in the background from a viewpoint called Gebenstorfer Horn – only a short walk from our house.

There aren't any Alps in canton Aargau but we do have a mountain range with beautiful forests: the Jura. To get a beautiful view of these rolling hills it’s worth a drive up to the Staffelegg pass and walk from here to the Gisliflue at 772m. It takes 2.5 hours through a lovely forest and a rocky top. You can see the Alps from here and there’s a good view to Aarau and the Aare river, and the highest point of our canton – the Geissfluhgrat (908m) is also visible. Just to take the highest point as a reference and exclude the two cities Geneva and Basel, then the Aargau is the flattest canton of Switzerland. So this is as flat as it gets in Switzerland!

Not far away, there’s another pass called Bözberg which was already used by the Romans. On the top, there’s a road to Linn with a beautiful linden tree. The estimated age of the tree is 800 years and the range of the trunk is 11m! What a masterpiece of nature and a true king of a tree! From here, you can start easy walks with beautiful views and visit the highest waterfall (5.4m) in Aargau in the Sagimülitäli. I’m wondering how English speaking people pronounce this place :-).

The forests are very often covered in a beautiful green layer of Bärlauch or wood garlic in English. This plant species is really related to garlic, onions and chives and very popular in our area processed as a pesto sauce. For us, it’s the beautiful white flowers and lush green leaves that indicates that winter time is finally over.    

On the other side of the Jura in the far north of Switzerland is the river Rhein flowing towards Basel with many border crossings to Germany. Close to Koblenz the river Aare meets with the Rhein and in the vicinity there’s a dam in Klingnau which is an important nesting place for birds. There are several old towns along the river such as Laufenburg, Rheinfelden, and Kaiserstuhl. The latter is the smallest city of Switzerland with a population of 400 and founded in 1254!

The biggest lake is found in the south of Aargau in the direction of Luzern: the Hallwilersee. It’s the 15th biggest lake in Switzerland. Here you can find one of the prettiest (real) water castles of Switzerland – the Schloss Hallwyl. For us, the lake was ideal to learn how to sail a boat. You have to change directions quite frequently otherwise you hit land or crash into a scheduled passenger boat which always have right of way. There’s also a beautiful swimming place with camping grounds in Tennwil where you get a true holiday atmosphere.

Finally, moving to the west of the canton you find additional towns such as Zofingen, Aarburg (picture below) and Aarau. The latter is the capital of the canton Aargau which in its current size was created in 1803 from the subject territory of Bern – over 500 years after the foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1291. But before the canton even existed, Aarau was the first capital of 'Switzerland' in 1798! Before that time, there was no official capital but the representatives of the independent cantons met at different places. It was Napoleon’s French army who conquered Switzerland in 1798, founded the Helvetic Republic and then declared Aarau as the capital. Unfortunately, the city was too small and after just 4 months the capital was moved to Luzern.  

And to finish this blog, we want to introduce some wildlife right in front of our door and above us in the sky. Their close presence at the time of lock-down and home-office was another sure sign that nature is thankful for being less disturbed by us humans.

Our other published locations cover the following areas (with links):

Part 1: Berner Oberland

Part 2: Jura

Part 3: Lake Luzern

Part 4: Engadin

Part 5: Appenzell

Part 6: Aargau

Part 7: Emmental

Part 8: Romandie

Part 9: Valais

Part 10: Uri, Schwyz, Glarus

Part 11: Rhein

Part 12: Zürich

"One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name"

(The Call - Thomas Osbert Morsdaunt, 1730-1809)

Travel blog and travel guide by Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

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