A walk through Rheinfelden with a view of the heights

It's Friday shortly before midday and I have an appointment with the Rheinfeld city guide Kurt J. Rosenthaler. Our meeting point is at the "Adler" on Obertorplatz and we plan a very special "pub crawl" together.

The guide also calls this part of the old town the "Bermuda Triangle" because there used to be seven pubs here in a relatively small area: Adler, Löwen, Schlüssel, Hasenburg, Engel, Kranz and Warteck. Of all these, the "Löwen" is still in operation today.

In general, the number of restaurants has been greatly reduced in recent decades. Kurt J. Rosenthaler estimates that there used to be around twenty pubs in the Old Town, plus ten more a little further out.

Historic pub signs

On our "pub crawl", we concentrate on the pub signs. "Inn signs were made until Switzerland was founded in 1848," says the city guide. The purpose of a tavern sign was, of course, to show where a restaurant was located. It also identified the specific pub through the respective motif. Historically, it was also a sign of official permission to operate a tavern.

We first study the tavern sign at the "Adler". As Kurt J. Rosenthaler explains, the "Adler", the "Sonne" and the "Schiff" belonged to the "imperial" taverns. In other words, they were actually frequented by the emperor.

The inn sign of the "Adler" shows the double-headed eagle with the four imperial symbols in gold: crown, orb, sceptre and imperial sword.

The double-headed eagle was an important symbol at the time of the Habsburgs, under whose influence and rule Rheinfelden stood from 1330 to 1802.

The Rheinfelden coat of arms can also be seen on the inn sign. As reported in the Neue Fricktaler Zeitung, the sign was painstakingly restored by a church painter and restorer almost ten years ago because it was in a poor condition and was in danger of falling down.

Our tour continues to the Löwen, the only restaurant in this original "Bermuda Triangle" that is still open today.

This house also has a long and traditional history.

The property was apparently first mentioned in 1463 and the inn served as a meeting place for travelers, locals and merchants centuries ago.

After photographing the beautiful golden sign of the lion, we soon come to the "Schlüssel". Here, too, the corresponding gilded symbol hangs in front of the inn.

We pass the golden post horn of today's Restaurant Pizzeria Post. On the façade of the building, we also notice the Austrian imperial eagle as well as the Rheinfeld coat of arms and the coat of arms of the former canton of Fricktal (lime leaf).

Our walk takes us to the former "Brasserie zum Salmen", where we photograph a salmon in the brewing star in the pub sign. Kurt J. Rosenthaler explains:

"As a food fish, the fish is called salm and not salmon and used to be on every menu in Rheinfelden."

The Haus zur Sonne

We walk a few meters further and come across an inn sign with a golden sun. The "Haus zur Sonne" is now home to the Fricktal Museum.

We come to the "Feldschlösschen am Rhein".

This ornate inn sign decorated with gold leaf and its bracket were restored just a few months ago, as reported by the Neue Fricktaler Zeitung.

The façade of the building with the Feldschlösschen, the Rheinfeld coat of arms and the stucco façade are also impressive.

Back on the other side of Marktgasse, we discover an inn sign with a rococo-style bouquet of flowers. "A 'Maien', as we say in Rheinfeld," emphasizes Kurt J. Rosenthaler. It was five years ago when this inn sign for the former restaurant "Zum Maien", later known as "Blume" or "Blüemli", was restored.

The inn, which operated as a restaurant until 2000, was first mentioned in 1446.

After discussing and photographing many inn signs in Marktgasse, we take a detour to Brodlaube. There we find the Rössli inn sign: a rider blowing a post horn on a white horse. In the 1850s, the Rössli restaurant was a stop for horse-drawn post wagons, which is probably how it got its name.

The last inn sign we see on our walk is that of the Engel restaurant: a non-three-dimensional angel made of gold-plated sheet metal. As Kurt J. Rosenthaler explains, from 1864 to 1896, this building was home to Rheinfelden's first poor people's spa and predecessor to the later Solbad sanatorium, founded by spa doctor Hermann Keller. "There were 15 bathtubs here for 60 guests," explains the city guide.

Originally, Kurt J. Rosenthaler assumed that our special tour of the pub signs would take around half an hour. In the end, we were on the road for over two hours. Two exciting hours in which I learned a lot about the town, the inns and their signs.

Perhaps this blog has inspired you, dear reader, to take a special look at the pub signs as you walk through the town?

Janine Tschopp is a freelance journalist. She writes regularly for the Neue Fricktaler Zeitung, the cultural magazine "2x Rheinfelden" and the Rheinfelden Christmas magazine, among others.