Aarau

Aarau is a town of roughly 21,700 inhabitants and the capital of the northern Swiss canton of Aargau as well as of the district of Aarau. It is German-speaking and predominantly Protestant. The old town sits on a rocky outcrop at a narrowing of the Aare valley on the river's right bank, at the southern foot of the Jura Mountains on the Swiss Plateau; newer districts spread to the south and east and up the slope, and Aarau has grown together with its neighbours Küttigen, Buchs, Suhr and Unterentfelden into one agglomeration. It lies 58 kilometres south of Basel and 65 kilometres northeast of Bern, and its municipal territory borders the canton of Solothurn to the west. The land ranges from 365 metres on the banks of the Aare to 471 metres at the Hungerberg. Neolithic artefacts and the ruins of a Bronze Age settlement have been found near today's railway station, and a Roman road between Solothurn and Vindonissa passed through the area. Rohr became a district of Aarau at the start of 2010.