Obern Baden/Statt Baeder/nach ihrer Gelegenheit auff das allerfleissigest contasehtet

Title

Obern Baden/Statt Baeder/nach ihrer Gelegenheit auff das allerfleissigest contasehtet

Half-bird show of the city of Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland with city coat of arms carried by two angels.

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.

Historical Description

The Limmat valley was already settled during the Mesolithic period. In 14 AD, the Romans built the Vindonissa legionary camp about five kilometers west of Baden, on the municipal territory of Windisch. The Roman legionaries recognized the healing properties of the thermal water and built thermal baths at the bend of the Limmat River, attested in inscriptions as Aquae Helveticae. Alamannic graves from the 7th century indicate that the area was continuously settled after the final withdrawal of the Romans in the first decade of the 5th century. Before the turn of the millennium, Stein Castle was built on the rocky ridge of the Schlossberg. Before 1127 there was a division of the Lenzburg dominion; the descendants of Arnold II. (1070-1127) called themselves the Counts of Baden. The Baden line died out in 1172. About 800 meters north of the main settlement was a second settlement center around the thermal springs, with the "Great Baths" on the left bank and the "Small Baths" on the right bank of the river. Around 1250, Baden developed into its own high court district. Even in Habsburg times, Baden had been a popular place of negotiation because of the baths and the associated diversions. In 1512, the city of Baden received a valuable Julius banner from Pope Julius II specifically because of the successful expulsion of the French. In 1529, latent tensions led to the First Kappeler War, which ended without a fight. In the Second Kappeler War of 1531, the Catholic towns prevented the further spread of the Reformation. According to the Second Land Peace, several parishes around Baden and the Wettingen Monastery were recatholicized. Baden remained a popular destination for secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries of both confessions.