The Fricktal ("Frick Valley") is a region on Northwestern Switzerland, comprising the Laufenburg and Rheinfelden districts of the Swiss canton of Aargau.
The region was known as Frickgau in the medieval period, ultimately from a Late Latin [regio] ferraricia, in reference to the iron mine located here in the Roman era, also transferred to the village of Frick as the main settlement.
After the Habsburg dynasty had lost large parts of its original Swabian possessions south of the Rhine to the Swiss Confederacy at the 1386 Battle of Sempach, the remaining Fricktal was administered from the Oberamt Breisgau of Further Austria (Vorderösterreich) at Freiburg, while the adjacent Unteraargau region to the south was finally conquered by the Swiss at Bern in 1415.
In the early 18th century, the citizens of Bern attempted to purchase Fricktal from the Habsburg Emperors without success.
As of 2014[update] Fricktal, with its mild climate, is an important location for wine and cherry production as well as a base of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.