Olten: the Railway Town on the Aare

Olten sits where the Aare cuts out of the Jura, roughly equidistant from Zurich, Basel and Bern. That shows in everyday life: the station works as a hub, its buffet is a national meeting point, and plenty of people passing through just change trains here. Stay longer and there's an old town on the Aare, an outdoor pool with direct river access, four museums under one roof, and a cultural calendar unusually packed for a town this size.

Olten became a rail hub around 1850 after the town lured the Schweizerische Centralbahn with a generous offer. The entire Swiss rail network was surveyed from here; a marker still notes the zero-kilometre point. The current station, built in 1903 on an island platform with its own train shed, works as a connecting hub: trains from every direction arrive on the hour and half hour, making transfers quick. Since 2015 the Betriebszentrale Mitte control centre, right next to the platforms, has directed rail traffic on the northern Gotthard and Simplon approaches as well as SBB's east-west traffic.

Walking out of the station toward town, you pass the Bahnhofbuffet Olten, known across Switzerland for its central location: the literary Gruppe Olten was founded there, as was the Swiss Alpine Club SAC. On travel times, the fastest trains reach Zurich HB in about 30 minutes, Basel SBB in 24 to 26 minutes, and Bern in around 26 minutes.

The wooden bridge (Alte Holzbrücke), built in 1803 by Blasius Balteschwiler, runs diagonally from the station quay into the old town, past churches, old townhouses and the city tower. The facade of the Rathskeller, known locally as the Chöbu, carries a painting of Oltners marching off to the Swiss Peasants' War of 1653; inside hangs a weapons collection. The town's Christian Catholic parish church matters beyond Olten: local jurist Walther Munzinger founded Switzerland's first Christian Catholic parish there, the church's first national synod met there in 1875, and Oltner pastor Eduard Herzog was elected the denomination's first bishop in 1876. St. Marien, the Roman Catholic parish church, was designed by Basel architect Hermann Baur and has a campanile-style tower holding four bells, with a painting by Ferdinand Gehr above the altar.

Since 2016 the Swiss Writers' Path (Schweizer Schriftstellerweg) has run through town: authors Franz Hohler, Alex Capus and Pedro Lenz each get an eight-stop audio tour, and a fourth route gathers other writers. A QR code at each stop plays stories read by the authors themselves.

Strandbad Olten, known locally as the Badi, sits directly on the Aare at the western edge of the old town, with a 50-metre pool, a non-swimmers' pool, a diving tower, slides and several beach volleyball courts, plus the palmaares restaurant on site. In 2026 it's open from 13 May to 23 September, starting at 6:30am on weekdays in May and September and staying open until 8:30pm in midsummer. From the pool, swimmers can carry straight on into the river. Next door, the Schützenmatte grounds add three beach volleyball courts and two table tennis setups; the Aare itself sees rowers and canoeists, while the Sälifluh cliff is described by the city as a haven for free climbers.

EHC Olten, founded in 1934, has played in the Swiss League or the top division for decades and hosts home games at Kleinholz stadium, which draws an average crowd of over 3,500. The season runs from September into spring, with the playoffs as the high point from February on. For those wanting to be active themselves, the Momentum climbing and skate hall on Industriestrasse stays open year-round.

Since autumn 2019, three of Olten's four museums have shared the House of Museums (Haus der Museen) on Konradstrasse: the Olten Natural History Museum, the Olten Historical Museum and the Solothurn Cantonal Archaeological Museum. They work closely together while keeping independent collections and programming; the building is wheelchair accessible and has its own restaurant, the MAGAZIN. Hours run Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, closed Mondays. Admission costs 5 francs, 3 francs for old-age and disability pension holders, and is free for under-18s and pre-booked school classes.

The fourth museum, Kunstmuseum Olten on Kirchgasse, was founded back in 1902 and was known as the Disteli-Museum until 1964, after Oltner painter and caricaturist Martin Disteli. Today it shows 19th-century painting and graphic works alongside modern and contemporary art. Regular hours: Tuesday to Friday noon to 5pm, weekends 10am to 5pm, closed Mondays; admission costs 7 francs, 4 francs reduced.

The Schützi cultural centre occupies a former gymnasium from 1894 and opened as a culture, communication and meeting centre in 1997; the hall measures 28 metres long, 14 metres wide and 8 metres high, holding up to 600 standing or roughly 250 to 320 seated, seven minutes on foot from the station. The programme runs to concerts, theatre, cabaret and club events.

Olten likes to call itself a cabaret town: the Oltner Kabarett-Tage, Switzerland's oldest satire festival, run every May across several venues at once, including the Stadttheater Olten, the Schützi, the Theaterstudio Olten and the Schwager-Theater; the 2027 edition runs from 19 to 29 May. November brings the Buchfestival Olten, which since 2017 has followed on from the book fair held until 2015, and the Oltner Tanztage, organised since 1996 by the Tanzinolten association and dedicated to professional contemporary dance. In December, the 23 Sternschnuppen take over: from 1 to 23 December there's a half-hour surprise every day, music, dance, cabaret or readings, with the audience never told in advance what's coming.

The weekly market runs Thursdays 7am to 11:30am on Kirchgasse and Saturdays the same hours on Bifangstrasse, with bread, vegetables, flowers, cheese and meat from the region. Once a month Kirchgasse and Baslerstrasse turn into a market street with clothes, jewellery and sweets, and a flea market sets up on the wooden bridge once a month too.

Just outside town, where the Aare cuts through the Born-Säli-Engelberg ridge of the Jura, the Bannfeld forest trail runs ten stations through the woods. At the Natural History Museum, the so-called Zwergli tours are aimed at toddlers up to age four with an accompanying adult. For pétanque, there are three public courts, at the Stadtpark, the Vögeligarten and by Kleinholz stadium.

Since 1816, Olten has marked the Oltner Schulfest every two years, in odd years, on the weekend before summer holidays start, with a big parade on the Sunday. In winter EHC Olten draws the crowds to Kleinholz; in summer it's the Badi on the Aare: between those two fixed points runs the rhythm of Olten's year.