Birr

Geschichte

Birr is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau and the capital of Brugg (district). The village lies halfway between Lenzburg and Brugg. Birr has grown with its neighbour Lupfig into a conurbation.Birr is known as one of the places where the Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi established new standards in education. His gravesite in Birr is listed as a heritage site of national significance.HistoryWhile a few artifacts from the Roman and Alamanni eras have been found in Birr, there was no known settlement. Birr is first mentioned in 1270 as Bire. Throughout the High Middle Ages the village belonged to the Habsburgs. The rights to rule the village went to Königsfelden Abbey at Windisch in 1397 and 1411. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528 those rights transferred to Bern.The chapel, which was a subsidiary of Windisch, became a parish church during the Reformation. This parish includes; Lupfig, Birrhard, Scherz, Schinznach-Bad and Brunegg. The current reformed church was built in 1662 by Abraham Dünz.