BADEN, a town in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the left bank of the river Limmat, 14m. N.W. of Zurich. The much frequented hot sulphur springs, mentioned by Tacitus, were fashionable in the 15th and 16th centuries. They are efficacious in cases of gouty and rheumatic affections, and attracted 6,400 visitors, chiefly Swiss, in 1920. They are approached from the old town by a fine boulevard. Many Roman remains have been found in the gardens of the Kursaal. The town is very pic turesque, with its steep and narrow streets, and its one surviving gateway; it is dominated on the west by the ruined castle of Stein, formerly a stronghold of the Habsburgs. 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. The delegates of the confederates met at Baden, from 1426 to about 1712, so that during that period Baden was virtually the capital of Switzerland. The diet sat in the old town hall or rathaus. Baden was the capital of the canton of Baden from 1798 to 1803, when the canton of Aargau was created. To the north-west of the baths a new industrial quarter, with large electrical engineering works, has sprung up. In 1930 the permanent population of the town of Baden was 10,143 (German-speaking, mainly Catholic, with many Jews). The whole agglomeration of Baden had 20,871 inhabitants in 1930.
One mile south of Baden, on the Limmat, is the famous Cister cian monastery of Wettingen (1227-1841—the monks are now at Mehrerau near Bregenz), with splendid old painted glass in the cloisters and magnificent early 17th-century carved stalls in the choir of the church. Six miles west of Baden is Brugg inhabitants) in a fine position on the Aar. Near by are remains of the Roman colony of Vindonissa (Windisch), and the monas tery (founded 1310) of Konigsfelden, formerly the burial-place of the early Habsburgs, still retaining much fine painted glass.