The parish church Maria Himmelfahrt is the Roman Catholic parish church in Baden in Switzerland. It is located in the center of the old town on the edge of a terrain terrace, which slopes down to the Limmat. In its present form it is based on the Gothic church built in the 15th century, but the history of the parish goes back to the early Middle Ages. On the southern slope of the terrace stands the Sebastianskapelle, which used to serve as an ossuary. Part of the surrounding terrain was used as a cemetery until 1820.
The first predecessor of today's church was built in the second half of the 9th century.
He comes from the Carolingian period and was examined during excavations in 1967/68. The church was built in a rectangle with masses from 26.4 to 11.2 meters. In the 12th century a Romanesque church was built in the same place, the south wall was offset by about one meter and was completed on the east side by a semicircular apse. As early as the 14th century, Maria was a patron of the church. Since 1650, when Pope Innocent X. gave the bones of the catacomb saint Damian to the church, this is the second church patron.
The existence of a parish in Baden is documented for the first time in 1241, more than 50 years before the formal founding of the city. Duke Friedrich of Habsburg transferred the church 1406 to the monastery Wettingen, as compensation for the Guglerkrieg of 1375 and the Sempacherkrieg of 1386 suffered losses. The result was frequent disputes between the city and the new collator; especially in priestly terms, the city tried to extend its influence.
From May 19 to June 8, 1526, the Baden Disputation between Johannes Eck and Johannes Oekolampad took place in the parish church. It was the first disputation of the Zwinglian Reformation outside of Zurich. Four of the Thirteen Ancient Places chose the new faith, which meant the end of the confessional unity of the Confederation. The city remained Catholic, especially because she did not want to jeopardize her status as a day spa and health resort.
In 1624, the city founded a chapel attached to the church. After the abolition of the monastery Wettingen in 1841 (see Aargauer Klosterstreit), the church assets fell first to the canton of Aargau, four years later to the city. During the Kulturkampf the Chorherrenstift was abolished in 1875.