Rheinfelden (Aargau)

Rheinfelden is a municipality in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland and the seat of the district of Rheinfelden, located 15 kilometres east of Basel. The name means the fields of the Rhine, as the town lies on the High Rhine. It is home to Feldschlosschen, the most popular beer in Switzerland, and the brewery is among its listed heritage sites. The town faces Rheinfelden in Baden-Wurttemberg across the river, and the two were joined until Napoleon Bonaparte fixed the border between Germany and Switzerland on the Rhine in 1802; they remain socially and economically tied. The area was already settled in the Middle Stone Age, when people lived in a small natural cave called the Hermitage. In 1445, during the Old Zurich War, insurgents destroyed the castle on the Inseli because of the city's allegiance with Basel. The entire old town is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites, and the municipality had 13,551 residents in December 2020.