Reinach

Reinach is a municipality in the district of Kulm in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.

History

Scattered neolithic items indicated that the area around Reinach has been occupied since at least that time. Several Hallstatt era tumuli (at Sonnenberg), Roman era buildings (at Chilebreiti) and Alamanni graves (at Herrenweg) confirm the early settlement of the region. Reinach is first mentioned in 1036 as Rinacha. At around the same time, the Lords of Reinach (named after their castle of Unter-Rinach, in a neighboring village), owned much of the property in the village. Reinach, together with Menziken, Burg and Wilhof, formed the lands of the Lords of Reinach. The sovereign rights of the Lords of Reinach fell in 1402 or 1404 to the Ribi family, the schultheiss of Lenzburg, and the Alsatian noble family of Mörsberg. In 1572 Reinach separated from Menziken to each become independent municipalities. After the conquest of Aargau by Bern in 1415, Reinach remained the center of the court of Reinach within the bailiwick of Lenzburg.

Ecclesiastically, before the Protestant Reformation in 1528, Reinach belonged to the parish of Pfeffikon. After it converted to the new denomination, a new parish was formed with Menziken, Beinwil am See, Burg and Leimbach. The parish church was built in 1528-29. Menziken and Burg separated from the parish in 1890 and Beinwil left in 1933.

From the 14th century, two mills and a tavern are mentioned in Reinach. In 1588 the town was granted market rights and a marketplace was built. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the canvas weaving industry spread to the village. From about 1850 to 1970 Reinach was a center of the tobacco and cigar industry. The Wynental- und Suhrentalbahn connected the municipality in 1904 to Aarau as part of the Reinach-Menziken line. In the 20th century several companies in the metals industry settled in Reinach. Merger negotiations with neighboring communities in the upper Wynental were suspended because of little financial participation by the canton. Regional cooperation may improve as part of a regional development concept.

Geography

Reinach has an area, as of 2009, of 9.47 square km. Of this area, 4.24 square km or 44.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.57 square km or 27.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.69 square km or 28.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km2 (4.9 acres) or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km2 (2.5 acres) or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 16.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. 26.2% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 26.5% is used for growing crops and 15.0% is pastures, while 3.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

The municipality is located in the Kulm district, in the upper Wynental (Wyna river valley).

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a Lion rampant Gules with head and tongue Azure.

Religion

From the 2000 census, 2,070 or 28.5% were Roman Catholic, while 3,283 or 45.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 6 individuals (or about 0.08% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic faith.