Author: Maarten Koning

Lenzburg Castle, its history and famous Residents

In Lenzburg (Canton Aargau), an impressive medieval castle towers high above the town. It is one of the best-preserved Höhenburgen in Switzerland.

The town of Lenzburg has an even older history. The remains of the Roman Amphitheatre, which held 4,000 spectators, point to an important settlement in Roman times.

However, the Roman name has yet to be discovered. Still, the nearby Roman garrison of Vindonissa (today’s Windisch), the border river (Limes), the Rhine and Aare and Roman roads made the location of today’s Lenzburg relevant from a military, transport and commercial point of view.

The name is derived from the Alemannic word ‘Lencis’ and shows the presence of this German-speaking tribe after the Romans’ departure. The first known written mention dates back to 893 (see also the museum Burghalde in Lenzburg).

The castle (castellum) Lenciburg appears in a document from 1077 at the time of Count Ulrich II of Lenzburg. This dynasty died out in 1173. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick I (Emperor Barbarossa 1121-1191) ) inherited the castle. After his death, the Counts of Kyburg acquired the castle and, after the extinction of this family in 1263, the Habsburgs.

Lenzburg received city rights in 1306, and the town and castle took on their medieval contours. Numerous renovations and extensions continued until the 19th century.

Bern conquered Lenzburg (and Aargau, apart from the Fricktal) in 1415 and acquired the castle in 1444. From 1444 to 1798, Bern’s bailiffs lived in the castle. Bern introduced the Reformation in Lenzburg in 1528.

The coats of arms of Bern and Habsburg are at the main gate, demonstrating Habsburg’s great prestige.

After the creation of the canton of Aargau, Lenzburg became a district capital in 1803. The town became a cotton producer and centre of the Lenzburg “cotton lords”. At the time, English textile manufacturers and politicians were also very impressed by the innovative textile industry in Lenzburg and the Confederation.

The Canton of Aargau administered the castle from 1803 to 1860. After 1860, famous Swiss, German, English, and American families, successively the Pestalozzi-Scotchburn, Wedekind, Jessup-Bowes Lyon, and Ellsworth families, owned the castle.

The Canton of Aargau and the city of Lenzburg finally bought the castle in 1956. The (Verein)  Freunde der Lenzburg Association manages the castle and its museum today.

(Source and further information: Stadt Lenzburg; Schloss Lenzburg)

Impressions of the castle and Lenzburg

Photo from Lenzburg Castle, on the opposite hill the Staufbergkirche

The town hall (Rathaus)

    

De Aabach

Aarau, or the emergence of a capital

The city of Aarau (Canton of Aargau) takes its name from the river Aare, the largest supplier to the Rhine. A few kilometres away, the Aare flows into the Rhine at the Swiss town of Koblenz, continuing its journey to Rotterdam.

The Aare and the hydropower plant near Aarau

Aarau is not just any town but the capital of canton Aargau. Neither the Celts nor the Romans, the Habsburgs or the inhabitants of Aarau had this status in mind until 1798.

Because of its location on the Aare, this region was already inhabited in Celtic and Roman times. The Counts of Kyburg founded the place around 1250. The castle, mill and old city walls and towers also date back to this time.

The medieval mill and castle

King Rudolf I of Habsburg (1218-1291) acquired the place in 1273 and granted it city rights in 1283. In 1415, however, Bern and Solothurn conquered much of Aargau (only the Fricktal remained Habsburg property until 1803).
Aarau was then governed by Bern as Untertanengebiet (with relatively large autonomy).

Aarau was Habsburg territory until 1415. The Habsburg double eagle and the coat of arms of Bern can be seen everywhere in the city

During the Reformation, the citizens chose the Protestant faith with a small majority, and from 1531, the meeting (Tagsatzung) of the representatives of the Reformed cantons regularly took place in Aarau. However, Baden remained the main venue for the Tagsatzung of all (Catholic and Protestant) cantons, although religious (and other) divisions hampered its effectiveness.

The French invasion of 1798 ended nearly four centuries of Bern rule in March. French revolutionary ideals also found an enthusiastic audience in Aarau, and on 12 April, the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) imposed by the French occupiers was proclaimed from the city hall. The parliament of this unitary state sat in the town hall, and the government (the directorate) was in the Haus zum Schlossgarten.

Aarau then effectively became Switzerland’s first capital. This status was short-lived. The infrastructure was lacking, and from September 1798, Lucerne was the new capital of the Helvetic Republic and the seat of parliament and the directorate.

However, the revolutionary ideals of 1798 soon gave way in Aarau too to the reality of French occupation and an unwanted unitary state. (Armed) rebellions arose everywhere in this republic, and Napoleon personally intervened in 1803. He dissolved the Helvetic Republic and, through the Acte de Médiation (Act of Mediation), restored the old confederation of cantons by creating six new cantons, including canton Aargau (including the Fricktal).

Aarau becomes the capital of the new canton. Like other cantonal capitals, effectively villages, for example, in the cantons of Schwyz, Glarus, both Appenzeller, Obwalden and Nidwalden, Aarau is a micro-level metropolis, just as Basel, the capital of canton Basel-Stadt, is a cosmopolitan multicultural metropolis with the rhythm of life of a village.

(Source and further information: A. Lüthi, Aarau, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, 25.11.2016; Gemeinde Aarau)

Impressions of Aarau

   

The Stadtmuseum

The Aargauer Kunsthaus

Flowers for Art in Aarau

From 5 to 10 March 2024, the Aargauer Kunsthaus celebrates the start of spring for the tenth time with the exhibition “Flowers for Art”.

Hans Ernst Brühlmann, Mädchen auf dem Hügel., 1907. Florist Massimo Bundi

Arnold Böcklin, Bergschloss mit Kriegerzug, 1871. Florist: Rémy Jaggi

In March, there are usually no flowers in bloom outside. The Kunsthaus presents the exhibition with the association Flowers to Arts, ” which brings spring to Aarau. For the tenth time, florists will be inspired by works of Art from the Aargauer Kunsthaus collection, giving them a floral response.

Flowers for Art spans an arc between floristry and Art and provides surprising perspectives when viewing the 14 works in the collection.

(Source and further information: Das Aargauer Kunsthaus)

Otto Morach, Fabrikumbau, 1916. Floristin: Angela Kaspar