The Roman Empire and Romanization
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The amphitheatre and (Roman) history of Martigny
26 January 2024
During the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), Martigny, a small village of the Celtic tribe of the Veragres, was turned into a Roman city. When he became emperor, the emperor undertook the conquest of Britain. He made accessible the most direct route to Britain: the Great St Bernard Pass. At the same time, he reorganised … Read more » “The amphitheatre and (Roman) history of Martigny”
Gotthard Base Tunnel
Since 1990, Switzerland has made efforts to ensure the development of the European transport system and the integration of the European high-speed rail network through the construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel (Gotthardbasistunnel). The Gotthard tunnel is an important construction on the European corridor Rotterdam-Milan-Genoa. The new freight line from Rotterdam to the Dutch-German border is … Read more » “Gotthard Base Tunnel”
The Middle Ages, Arts and State Building
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The Saint-Maurice Abbey
12 February 2023
Available in French and Dutch.
The long nineteenth century 1815-1918
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Geneva, France and the Swiss Confederation 1798-1815
8 March 2023
Available in French, Dutch and German
Augusto Giacometti in Aarau and Chur
10 March 2024
The exhibition Freiheit | Auftrag (Freedom, Commission) focuses on a multi-faceted artistic personality whose oeuvre counts among the highest expressions of art in the first half of the 20th century. The exhibition travels along the “Freedom” and “Commission” issues to explore the relationship between free creation and commissioned art. It reveals the tension within which … Read more » “Augusto Giacometti in Aarau and Chur”
Multicultural, Cosmopolitan and European Switzerland
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Sgraffiti in Engadine
10 April 2023
Engadine ((canton Grisons) houses are often decorated with geometric motifs, drawings, animals or sayings. Italian artists introduced the technique in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries after the Bündner expansion in the Italian territories. The artists wanted to earn money, and the fresco technique was well-known in Italy. It was a successful export product. The technology is … Read more » “Sgraffiti in Engadine”
The Swiss Confederation was a functioning composite polity, but it was not a state and of course, it was not a monarchy. Yet the Confederation embraced territories that retained a feudal-hierarchical structure, albeit only as associated members (the abbacies of Engelberg and St. Gallen, the prince-bishopric of Basel, the county of Neuchâtel). How, therefore, did the Confederation survive?
Before the Burgundian Wars (1474-1477) no one gave the Confederation much chance of survival. Yet these wars did help to create a sense of collective identity manifest not in institutions but in patriotic narratives of Swiss valour and heroism of city-led republic. This vision was shattered in the Swiss wars of religion, but in the end, pragmatism and flexibility ensured that the discord did not lead to disaster. Ultimately, aggression yielded to accommodation. (T. Scott, The Swiss and Their Neighbours 1460-1560. Between Accommodation and Aggression, Oxford 2017).