Brugg

Brugg (sometimes written as Brugg AG in order to distinguish it from other Bruggs) is a Swiss municipality and a town in the canton of Aargau and is the seat of the district of the same name. The town is located at the confluence of the Aare, Reuss, and Limmat, with the Aare flowing through its medieval part. It is located approximately from the cantonal capital of Aarau; from Zürich; and about from Basel. Brugg is the Swiss German term for bridge (Brücke). This is an allusion to the purpose of the medieval town's establishment under the Habsburgs, as the town is located at the narrowest point on the Aare in the Swiss midlands. The Habsburgs’ oldest known residence is located in the neighborhood of Altenburg, which had previously been an independent community. Prior to their relocation to Austria, Brugg was the center of the Habsburgs' territory. Between 1415 and Napoleon’s invasion in 1798, Brugg was a subject territory of Bern. Since then it has belonged to the canton of Aargau. The town is the home of the Swiss Farmers’ Union and is the location of a campus of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Brugg's Vindonissa museum is listed as a heritage site of national significance. An engineer training unit of the Swiss army is also based in the town. The municipality extends for six kilometers (4 mi.) from its southwestern to northeastern boundaries, and is barely wider than one kilometer (2/3 mi.) at its broadest point. The Aare, which flows through the centre of the old town, divides the municipality into two separate, distinct landscapes – the Swiss plateau on the southern bank and the beginnings of the Jura on the northern side. The southwesternmost area of Brugg is primarily a flood plain, known as the Wildischachen, which is located between the Aare and a hill, the Wülpelsberg, upon which the Habsburg castle in the neighboring community of Habsburg was built. Approximately two kilometers (1.25 mi.) further north two separate branches of the Aare come together near the village of Altenburg.