Author: Maarten Koning

The Seebach Valley

The Seebach Valley in the Canton of Thurgau is a peat landscape of national importance. The valley was formed 20,000 years ago by the Rhine Glacier at the time of the last Ice Age.

Three lakes emerged from it: the Hüttwiler, the Nussbaumersee and the Hasensee. The rise of the water level is an ancient natural phenomenon. The pile dwellings from 4,000 years ago are now four metres below the water surface of the Nussbaumersee.

The Romans already inhabited the area. The Roman villa on the shores of Lake Hüttwiler, the Roman Museum and the Vindonissa legionnaires’ camp in Windisch bear witness to this history.  The valley is an El Dorado for flora and fauna nowadays.

Thirty years ago, however, the area was depleted by the numerous construction projects. These had their origins in the defence line in the years before and after 1940.

(Further information: www.thurgau-bodensee.ch).

The Ceneri Base Tunnel

On Friday, 4 September, the tunnel (Ceneri Basis-Tunnel) was opened at Monte Ceneri in the canton of Tessin.

This tunnel completes the NEAT (Die NEue AlpenTransversale) project, the most extensive and most expensive infrastructure in the country.

On 13 December, at 6 AM, the first train will run from Lugano to the north.  The tunnel is 15.4 kilometres long and connects Camorino near Bellinzona with Lugano.

In 2007, the tunnel (34.6 km) through the Lötschberg was already put into operation. The Gotthard Base Tunnel was opened on June 1, 2016.

Switzerland has thus fulfilled its (European) treaty obligations and respected the result of the referendum in the 1990s. Pacta sunt servanda. The expenses come to around 23 billion CHF, paid by Switzerland.

The Gotthard Strassen-Tunnel (over 16 km long), inaugurated on 5 September 1980, also resulted in a significant reduction in travel time for road transport.

The completion of the NEAT project, situated in the geographical heart of Europe, means (once again) an enormous service to European freight and road transport.

The Italian-speaking canton of Ticino will also have better infrastructure between the cities of Bellinzona, Lugano, and Locarno, or the Città Ticino, a kind of Greater London or the Randstad in the Netherlands (The Hague, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam).

In the long term, the project will also connect parts of northern Italy (Genoa, Milan, Como, Mendrisio-Varese (Maplensa), Novara).

The Riviera of Solothurn

The town of Solothurn, also the name of the canton, was the seat of the French embassy from 1530 to 1792.

In the alliance (Eidgenossenschaft) of the thirteen mainly German-speaking Orte and cantons, French was the language of diplomacy and the elite in the western cantons of Bern, Solothurn and (bilingual) Freiburg.

The French-speaking cantons of Neuchâtel, bilingual Valais (an ally of the Eidgenossenschaft), French-speaking Vaud (occupied by Bern and Fribourg), French-speaking Geneva (an independent republic), and the French-speaking Jura (part of the Prince-Bishopric of Basel) were not yet members of this Confederation.

Many buildings, including Hotel La Couronne and the many city palaces, recall the French (royal) influence in Solothurn.

The economic ties with France consisted mainly of lucrative mercenary contracts. Thousands of men from Solothurn fought and died for the French king and his kingdom.

The (Mediterranean) cuisine and the number of restaurants, the savoir vivre and the high level (and subsidies) of culture, museums, theatres bear witness to centuries of French influence and culture.

Solothurn even has a Riviera, at least that’s what the locals call it, a few hundred meters of quay (Landhausquai) alongside the river Aare.

When the sun shines, and with a bit of fantasy, the quay resembles the French Riviera.

The Aare Ebene, the Witi, between Solothurn and Grenchen

Continuing to Build

The Swiss member (NIKE) of the European Heritage Days invites the public on 12 and 13 September 2020 to debate the future of the cities, villages and houses in Switzerland. How can they be preserved while at the same time creating new, high-quality residential and open spaces in the cities?

With the theme “Continuing to build” (Weiterbauen – Verticalité – Costruire sul costruito – Construir en il construi, in the four languages of the country) the Days address topical questions. Over a thousand free guided tours walks, workshops or discussion groups are available throughout the country.

The need for living space and mobility is continually increasing. One expects around ten million people in Switzerland in 2045. At the same time, the aim is to put a stop to settlement growth and building in rural areas.

For people to feel comfortable in a densely populated environment and cities, however, high-quality construction must continue. It also includes a responsible approach to architectural heritage and city planning.

Examples show the conflicts of interest between the protection of the architectural heritage, the needs of the people and use of the available space in cities and rural areas. They show, for example, how a milk factory became a university, how a fire in a parliament building led to an architectural masterpiece, or how an uninhabited farmhouse and its barn were transformed into a residential building. (Source and further information: www.nike-kulturerbe.ch and www.europeanheritagedays.com).

Ninety years Glacier-Express

Ninety years ago, the first Glacier Express of the Rhätische Bahn drove from St. Moritz to Zermatt via Reichenau, Disentis, Andermatt, Gletsch, and Brig.

The route has been adapted and extended several times and now passes the cantons of Graubünden, Valais, and Uri.

In the early years, the tourists came from Europe. After 1950, the number of American tourists increased, partly due to the attention of television stations.

Since the 1980s, an increasing number of Asian and Arab tourists have used the Express. From 1930 onwards, the train carried more than eight million passengers.

Service and appearance have undergone significant changes since 1930. Luxury carriages and modern booking systems were introduced. However, the train did not get the red colour until 1986. The magnificent Alpine landscape remains unchanged.

(Source: www.glacierexpress.ch).

Helias Helye en the first printed and dated book

In 1470, Helias Helye (1400-1475) published the first dated printed book on the territory of present-day Switzerland.

At the age of seventy, he began his new career as a book printer in his house in Beromünster, today’s museum (Schloss-Museum). Until then, he was canon in Beromünster and priest in Neudorf.

In his younger years, he studied and lived in Basel, where he became acquainted with the early stages of the publishing and printing industry, particularly during the Council of Basel (1431-1448).

The first printed book, which dates from his printing house, is a commentary on the Bible, titled ‘Mammotrectus super Bibliam‘.

The book is six hundred pages long and written in Latin. Although it was not commercially successful, and his printing house went bankrupt, he printed five other books before he died in 1475.

Helias was born in Zurich and lived in Beromünster. His parents came from the Laufen Valley (Laufental), and he was a citizen of Laufen.

For this reason, a statue of this forgotten printer and pioneer stands in Laufen (today, the canton of Basel-Landschaft). Laufen belonged to Basel until 1798.

(Source and further information: www.schlossberomuenster.ch).

The Light of Graubünden

Graubünden is the largest and only trilingual canton in Switzerland. The official languages are Romansh, Italian and German.

The village of Lü in the Val Müstair is at an altitude of 1920 metres in one of the five Romansh-speaking areas. The sun often shines in the village when a thick layer of clouds covers the valley. Lü seems an appropriate name for the village.

The village has no more than fifteen houses in the beautiful Engadine style. The village overlooks the Biosphere Reserve (Biosfera Val Müstair in Romansh) and is a transit route and base for various hiking trails.

Unfortunately, the Astrovillage closed in 2019. The village was chosen as an astronomy research and education centre in 2009. The pure air and the absence of (light) pollution provided the perfect location.

The monastery of St. Johann (San Jon in Romansh), founded around 775 by Charlemagne, and the town of St. Müstair are located in the valley.

(Source and further information: www.val-muestair.engadin.com).

The Crossroads of Basel

The city of Basel represents and confirms, at a micro level, Switzerland’s identity. This crossroads of rivers, roads, and mountain passes connects Italy, Germany, France, and Austria, as well as Northern and Southern Europe, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe.

The Celtic tribe of the Rauraci lived in the region when the Romans arrived in the first century BC. The Roman period was followed by the Burgundian Kingdom (434-534), then the Alemans, the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire and, finally, accession to the Swiss Confederation in 1501

The diocese of Basel was the (linguistic) frontier between two archbishoprics: Besançon in France, to which belonged the territory of Grossbasel, and Mainz (Mayence) in Germany, which included the diocese of Constance and Kleinbasel, on the right bank of the Rhine.

Basel hosted the Council (1431-1449), following the Council of Constance (1411-1418). After the university’s foundation in 1460, Basel became a hub for humanism, the publishing and printing industry, ideas, and culture.

The industrial, trading, and humanist city hosted Erasmus (1456-1536), who was buried in the Protestant Münster. The city also underwent the fury and rage of the reformers (Basilea reformata, 1529).

Famous artists—such as Holbein the Younger (1497-1543), scholars (Jacob Burckhardt, 1818-1897), or politicians, such as the French socialist Jean Jàures (1859-1914) in 1912—had their finest hours in this city.

The dynamic of economic and social change in Western Europe during the nineteenth century and the outbreak of World War I mark the dissolution of a primarily agricultural and rigidly hierarchical social order that had survived for many centuries.

Basel became an industrial town through its chemical and pharmacy industries. The city has always been committed to introducing modern architecture and presenting non-European cultures (as one of the few non-colonial nations in Western Europe). The Museum of Ethnography was founded in 1849 by missionaries, Swiss travellers, and collectors, and was one of the first of its kind in the world.

Wealthy families, such as the Amerbach, Faesch, and Fesch, collected art, displayed it to the public, and founded art societies and museums.

(Source: S. Eisenman, Nineteenth Century Art. A Critical History, London 2011).