Living in Muttenz — municipality near Basel

Muttenz's history reaches back to the Celtic and Bronze Ages: grave finds at the Wartenberg, the 479-metre hill south-east of the village, testify to early settlement. Three medieval castles once stood on the Wartenberg, destroyed in the great Basel earthquake of 1356 — afterwards, around 1420, Hans Thüring Münch had the village church of St. Arbogast converted into a fortified church, to this day the only surviving fortified church in Switzerland. Its ring wall, just over seven metres high with battlements and the remains of two gate towers, along with the ossuary built in 1513 with frescoes from around 1507, can still be visited today. In 1515, the debt-ridden Münch family was forced to sell the lordships of Münchenstein, Muttenz and Wartenberg to the city of Basel. Modern Muttenz is strongly shaped by industry: the Basel marshalling yard was once the largest in Switzerland, and Schweizerhalle is home to the Swiss Salinas saltworks as well as Novartis and Clariant plants. On the 34-hectare Polyfeld site, a new knowledge and residential quarter is emerging around the striking, cube-shaped FHNW campus with 4,000 students. The historic village centre with its medieval church provides an appealing contrast. Muttenz railway station offers direct S-Bahn connections to Basel SBB in 8 minutes.