Aesch: vines, a castle for a town hall and the school for the little ones

47 people in one grave

In 1907 a stone tomb from the third millennium BC was discovered in the Gmeiniwald. It held the remains of 47 people, 14 of them children. It is one of the oldest pieces of evidence of settlement in the Birseck.

The Romans had three estates here and were already growing wine. The name “Esch” appears in 1252. The village belonged to the bishop's bailiwick of Pfeffingen and was held in fief by the Counts of Thierstein until 1519.

The Blarers

Aesch turned Protestant around 1529. Between 1582 and 1588 Bishop Jakob Christoph Blarer von Wartensee made it the starting point of the Counter-Reformation in the Birseck. For the next two hundred years his family provided the bailiffs, and from 1604 to 1607 it built itself a castle in the middle of the village.

Aesch was plundered and burnt down in the Thirty Years' War. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland notes drily that this is why little old building fabric survives. The castle remained. The municipality bought it at auction in 1851, and it has been the town hall ever since.

It was a Blarer, of all people, who then led the revolution. Anton von Blarer was one of the leading figures in the movement to separate the countryside from the city of Basel. In 1830 a liberty tree stood in the village bearing the words “Freedom or death”.

From wine village to residential community

In 1846 there were 34 hectares under vine. The Jura railway arrived in 1875, the tram in 1907. Industry came late, only after 1945, once the Birs had been straightened and building land had become available on the plain. The 3,100 inhabitants of 1950 had become almost 10,000 by 2000. The vines in the Klus are still there.

What it is like to live here

Aesch is a linear village on the left bank of the Birs. Its centre lies around the castle and the Hauptstrasse. The vineyard slopes rise towards the Klus; newer residential neighbourhoods lie on the plain, and businesses along the Birs.

There are primary and secondary schools in the village. The ISB campus is at the Arlesheimerstrasse tram stop; the older year groups travel on to Reinach, also by tram 11.

Since October 2023 Aesch has had a full junction on the A18. It was intended to relieve the village centre of through traffic.

What you need to know

Aesch has two routes to Basel, and they are very different. The S-Bahn takes 13 minutes but stops at the railway station, an eleven-minute walk from the village. The tram stops in the village and takes almost half an hour. Which route is yours depends on exactly where you live.

Until 12 December 2026 a replacement bus is running instead of the tram. The municipality is revising its zoning plan; approval by the canton is still pending.

Sources: Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, Aesch BL · Municipality of Aesch, projects · Canton BL, full A18 junction · ISB, Aesch Campus · Prices: RealAdvisor, October 2026 · Timetable: transport.opendata.ch, regular timetable, 15 December 2026