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The Roman Empire and Romanization
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A Roman Road without Borders.
11 December 2022
The approximately 400 km long road follows the course of the old Via Romana, which connected the Roman legionnaire’s camp Vindonissa (Windisch, canton Aargau, Switzerland), with the settlement Grinario (Köngen near Stuttgart in Germany). This road is also shown on the Tabula Peutingeriana, an ancient Roman road map. The original map is lost, but a … Read more » “A Roman Road without Borders.”
The Union and the Disunion on the first of August
Switzerland is a small country (the size of the Netherlands) in the middle of Europe. The Swiss Confederation The fascinating history and culture, the (direct) democratic, the economic, monetary, political and multicultural accomplishments are (too) often overlooked and neglected by other (neighbouring) European countries. Switzerland and the centuries of state-building (not always peaceful and neutral) … Read more » “The Union and the Disunion on the first of August”
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
Multilingual Switzerland
16 September 2023
Languages are more than merely a means of communication; they also shape daily lives and are part of culture. The exhibition (Sprachenland Schweiz/La Suisse, pays de langues) shows Switzerland’s linguistic landscape. In addition to the four national languages (German, Italian, French, and Romansh), countless other languages, dialects, accents, and types of slang can be heard. … Read more » “Multilingual Switzerland”
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).