Page 173 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Switzerland

Looking across the Swiss plateau from Mount Rigi

NORTHERN

SWITZERLAND

Bordered by the Rhine to the north and the Jura to
the southwest, this relatively flat area was settled
by the Celts around 450 BC. By 44 BC, the Romans,
attracted by the trade oppor tunities opened by
the Rhine, founded the town of Augusta Raurica,
in the area east of what is now Basel, and soon
spread westwards. On the banks of the Rhine,
this port town soon became a centre of commerce,
developing a wealthy merchant class. At the
behest of a Papal bull, Basel Council established
Switzerland’s oldest university here, in 1460, to
educate its wealthy sons. Around this time, Baden,
to the east, had become an ad hoc capital city for
the expanding Swiss Confederation, and the
regular meeting place for the executive council.
A popular spa town since Roman times, thanks
to its natural thermal springs, Baden’s reputation
as a resort began to spread in the 15th century.
Refugees of the War of Religion brought trade
and industry to the flourishing northern cantons
throughout the 1500s, and, by the 19th century,
northern Switzerland was industrial ized, and had
become the country’s most populated region.
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