Kolumbansweg stage 4: Koblenz - Baden

Worth seeing & knowing

• Döttingen: Various artefacts provide evidence of settlement during the Neolithic period. There were two manor houses here in Roman times. Both were destroyed by plundering Alemanni around 260 AD. Döttingen was located on the Roman military road from Zurzach to Vindonissa. From the end of the reservoir, we hike along the Aare on pleasant natural and gravel paths.

• On the artificial Aare island shortly after Döttingen is another nuclear power station - Beznau - which began operating in 1969. Today it is the oldest nuclear power station in the world.

• At Würenlingen we pass the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, the largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences in Switzerland.

• We now arrive in what is known as Switzerland's moated castle. Here the rivers Aare, Limmat and Reuss join to form the Aare, which then flows into the Rhine at Koblenz. The catchment area of these rivers covers around 40% of Switzerland.

• We followed the Aare as far as Untersiggenthal and then the Limmat as far as Zurich. The area was already inhabited during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The first documentary mention dates back to 833. The landowners were the Fridolin monastery in Säckingen in the 9th century, Einsiedeln monastery in the 11th century, St. Blasien monastery in the 12th century, Wettingen monastery from 1245 and Königsfelden monastery in Windisch from 1337. Windisch was owned by the Habsburgs, whose ancestral seat was a little to the west of Windisch.

• Stage town of Baden: Around 14 AD, the Romans built the legionary camp of Vindonissa near Baden (Aquae Helveticae). Because of the healing properties of the thermal water, they built thermal baths on the Limmat. The village of Baden, which was directly adjacent to Vindonissa and was probably under military administration, was located at the intersection of important transport routes. The main axis led from Augusta Raurica (Augst) via Vindonissa (Windisch) to Vitudurum (Winterthur) and Brigantium (Bregenz). A road branched off in the direction of Turicum (Zurich) and from there to the Alpine passes. The Romans left the area at the beginning of the 5th century. However, it remained populated. The Confederates conquered the town in 1415. Baden was a subject town until 1798, but held a prominent position as a spa town and the most important meeting place for the Federal Diet until 1712. In 1714, one of the many peace treaties - the Peace of Baden - was concluded here at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. As the founding location (1891) of Brown, Boveri & Cie, now ABB, Baden is an internationally important centre of the electrical engineering industry.