Bremgarten
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Bremgarten

Bremgarten

Medieval Aargau town wrapped by the Reuss River, with half-timbered houses and a covered bridge.

Bremgarten is a small medieval town in canton Aargau, wrapped on three sides by a wide loop of the Reuss river. The old town is remarkably well preserved — a tight cluster of half-timbered buildings, a covered wooden bridge, and a hilltop church that overlooks the river bend. It's the kind of town that photographers find immediately and tourists mostly miss, sitting just 20 kilometres west of Zurich.

The covered bridge (Holzbrücke) sits on piers laid in the thirteenth century and is one of the finest surviving wooden bridges in Switzerland. The old town's lanes are quiet and compact enough to walk in half an hour, but the setting on the Reuss — particularly in spring when the water runs high — makes it worth lingering. Climb to the city church for the postcard view back over the rooftops to the river bend.

Guide

Day Trips

Bremgarten is itself best treated as a day trip from Zurich, 35 minutes away by S-Bahn. If you are using it as a base, Baden (Roman thermal baths, attractive Altstadt) is 30 minutes north by car, and the Reuss valley downstream — past the Mellingen wooden bridge, also covered — makes a good cycling loop.

Guide

Getting There

Bremgarten is on the BDWM Bremgarten-Dietikon-Wohlen-Meisterschwanden private railway, which connects to the Swiss federal network at both ends. The simplest route from Zurich is the S17 from Zurich HB to Bremgarten via Dietikon (around 35 minutes total). From Wohlen, the same line takes about 12 minutes the other way and connects to the main Zurich–Lucerne railway.

By car, the town is just off the A1 motorway (exit 60 Berikon-Widen), 20 kilometres west of Zurich. The Altstadt is car-free; use the parking at the eastern end of the bridge.

Guide

Things to Do

Bremgarten's pleasures are concentrated on one peninsula: walk the lanes of the medieval Altstadt, cross the wooden bridge, climb to the city church. The whole circuit takes maybe an hour and a half, longer if you stop for coffee. Add the surrounding Reuss valley for a longer half-day.