Reinach, Aargau

Reinach is a municipality in the district of Kulm in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. Scattered Neolithic finds, Hallstatt era burial mounds, Roman buildings and Alamanni graves show that the area has been settled since early times. The village is first mentioned in 1036 as Rinacha, and the Lords of Reinach, named after their castle at Unter-Rinach, owned much of the land. Reinach separated from neighbouring Menziken in 1572 to become an independent municipality, was granted market rights in 1588, and remained the centre of the court of Reinach under Bern after 1415. Canvas weaving spread in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and from about 1850 to 1970 Reinach was a centre of the tobacco and cigar industry. The Reinach-Menziken railway linked it to Aarau in 1904, and the municipality covers about 9.47 square kilometres.