This section displays the news and newsletters from the various periods, Column EU-Switzerland, Agenda and Quotes.

Archives

The Roman Empire and Romanization

News

Latest news:
A Roman Road without Borders.

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.”

European Affairs

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

News

Latest news:
The Saint-Maurice Abbey

Available in French and Dutch.

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The long nineteenth century 1815-1918

News

Latest news:
Geneva, France and the Swiss Confederation 1798-1815

Available in French, Dutch and German

Agenda
Multilingual Switzerland

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

News

Latest news:
Sgraffiti in Engadine

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”

Quotes

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).

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