Villigen village
The area was already settled in the Stone Age, and Roman and Alemannic remains have been found there. A Henricus von Villigen is mentioned in writing in 1247, the first written record of the village. Villigen has been a wine-growing village since at least the 13th century; the Gugele was its main vineyard then and still is today.
The municipality covers 1,120 hectares at 367 metres above sea level and had 2,323 inhabitants on 1 October 2026. It belongs to the Brugg region, and today PSI is the largest employer in the area.
The canton of Aargau
The canton of Aargau covers 140,380 hectares and had 743,643 inhabitants at the end of 2025. Its 196 municipalities are organised in eleven districts. Near Brugg, the Aare, the Reuss and the Limmat flow together in what is called the “water castle of Switzerland”.
PSI and the ETH Domain
PSI is one of the federal institutions of the ETH Domain. The domain consists of two Federal Institutes of Technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL in Lausanne, four research institutes – PSI, WSL, Empa and Eawag – the ETH Board as the strategic management body, and an internal appeals commission. The ETH Board sets the strategy within the objectives laid down by the Federal Council and Parliament.
In September 2026 the ETH Board decided to develop the four research institutes into a “third pillar” of the ETH Domain, alongside ETH Zurich and EPFL, under the working title “Swiss National Labs”. The institutes will keep their legal personality, names and locations and gradually merge their support services; the name of the shared roof is to be decided in December 2026 (status as of 3 November 2026). The Swiss Model route of the Atlas, below, follows this federal network.
Science profile
Villigen’s science is that of PSI: accelerator physics, photon science, neutron and muon science, materials, energy and climate research, and proton therapy. The institutions are described on Institutes & Facilities.
On the Atlas
Villigen lies on two routes of the TheScience.fm Atlas: Big Machines, between Lausanne and Frascati, and Swiss Model, between Lausanne and Zürich, which follows the federal institutes of the ETH Domain.
-
Big Machines via Villigen
Large research machines for particles, photons and plasma.
Stops: Grenoble.science → Geneva.science → Lausanne.science → Villigen.science → Frascati.science
-
Space agencies, mission centres and the people who build spacecraft.
Stops: Pasadena.science → Noordwijk.science → Bonn.science → Frascati.science
-
Cities tied to ideas about how science is judged, funded and measured. Frascati gave its name to the rules for counting R&D.
Stops: Sevres.science → Lyon.science → Bonn.science → Bologna.science → Frascati.science
-
Swiss Model via Villigen
How Switzerland organises research, from CERN's host city to its federal institutes.
Stops: Geneva.science → Lausanne.science → Villigen.science → Zuerich.science
| Hub | Anchor institutions | Routes |
|---|---|---|
| Bologna.science | Bologna Process · ECMWF data centre | Concept Cities |
| Bonn.science | DFG · DAAD · Humboldt Foundation · German Space Agency at DLR | Space, Concept Cities |
| Frascati.science | INFN-LNF · ESA ESRIN · ENEA | Big Machines, Space, Concept Cities |
| Geneva.science | CERN | Big Machines, Swiss Model |
| Grenoble.science | ESRF · ILL | Big Machines |
| Lausanne.science | EPFL Swiss Plasma Center | Big Machines, Swiss Model |
| Lyon.science | IARC, the WHO cancer research agency | Concept Cities |
| Noordwijk.science | ESA ESTEC | Space |
| Pasadena.science | Caltech · NASA JPL | Space |
| Sevres.science | BIPM · SI and metrology | Concept Cities |
| Villigen.science | Paul Scherrer Institute | Big Machines, Swiss Model |
| Zuerich.science | ETH Zurich | Swiss Model |
| science.Taipei | Academia Sinica | — |
Sources
- Gemeinde Villigen, Geschichte
- Gemeinde Villigen, Gemeinde in Zahlen
- Kanton Aargau, Kanton Aargau in Zahlen
- Gemeinde Villigen, Tourismus
- ETH Board, Overview of the ETH Domain
- ETH Board, FIT for the Future: Shared roof for the research institutes (24 September 2026)
Sources checked on: 3 November 2026