16 November 2022
The Prince-Bishopric of Basel experienced two significant revolutions after 1500. The title of Prince-Bishopric is a consequence of the status of the Bishop in the Holy Roman Empire. The Bishop was a prince (Reichsfürst/Fürstbischof) of the Empire. The Reformation, which occurred between 1527 and 1529, marked a clear break. The Bishop moved to Porrentruy (Pruntrut … Read more » “The Prince-Bishopric of Basel after 1813”
6 November 2022
Kaspar Stockalper (1609-1691), the entrepreneur, politician and diplomat from Brig (Canton of Valais), established professional postal services across the Simplon Pass. The museum in the Stockalperschloss highlights this activity in the exhibition “Passage Simplon”. His successful (and lucrative) business delivered mail from Milan to Lyon in less than eight days. The couriers and later the … Read more » “From Stagecoach to the Postauto”
31 July 2022
In January 1798, French troops invaded the Swiss Confederation (Eidgenossenschaft). The territory of the Prince-Bishopric Basel had already been confiscated in 1792 and 1797. The Swiss cantons and cities capitulated. On 6 April 1798, the (French) Directorium proclaimed the Helvetic Constitution of the new unitary republic: Art. 1: The Helvetic Republic is an indivisible state. … Read more » “The Helvetic Republic and Nidwalden”
5 July 2022
On December 30, 1813, the Austrian general Count Ferdinand Bubna von Littiz (1768-1825) entered Geneva, ending fifteen years of French domination. In 1798, the city enthusiastically welcomed the French revolutionary troops. After fifteen years of French annexation, French-speaking Geneva stood at a crucial crossroads in its two-thousand-year existence. On January 1, 1814, the regents who … Read more » “Geneva’s Choice in 1815”
19 December 2021
A Dutch chronicle from the nineteenth century (Jan Willem van Druijnen, Leven aan de Waal of Vervolg der Kronijk van Nijmegen 1819-1859) reports that more than 1500 Swiss arrived in Nimwegen (Nijmegen) on timber rafts in July and August 1819, on their way to Dordrecht. They emigrated by ship to South Brazil. It indicates mass … Read more » “1500 Swiss on a Timber Raft or Höllander Flöße”
27 November 2021
The heyday of the relationship between Switzerland and Great Britain was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Switzerland had a cult status in the Anglo-Saxon countries. Many writers, historians, travellers, politicians, diplomats, and merchants praised the political system, the state’s organisation, and the functioning of the Confederation (Eidgenossenschaft). They were also impressed by the landscape … Read more » “The relationship between Switzerland and Great-Britain”
18 April 2019
The famous Swiss historian Jacob Christian Burckhardt (1818-1897) was the first to analyse the use of satire, parody and wit in Renaissance Europe. Burckhardt (Weltliche Betrachtungen, posthumously published in 1905) also introduced the term Kleinstaat (Le petit état, the small state) as a reminder of Switzerland’s democratic qualities at the time of European superpowers and … Read more » “Jacob Burckhardt, European Satire, parody and wit in Basel”
19 November 2018
Tadeusz Kosciuszko was born in 1746, in a town now part of the Republic of Belarus, to a Polish aristocratic family. He pursued a career as an army officer, first in Warsaw (1765-1769) and subsequently in France (1769-1774), where he acquired expertise as a military engineer in building military fortifications. He was abroad during the … Read more » “Tadeusz Kosciuszko in Switzerland”
19 October 2018
The mineral water trail (Mineralwasserweg Scuol in German or senda d’aua minerala Scuol in Romansh) consists of hiking trails in the area of Scuol, Tarasp, Ftan and Sent in Lower Engadine (Unterengadin, canton Graubünden). Information is provided in two languages (Romansh and German. More than twenty springs bubble from the rocks in Tarasp and Scuol (canton … Read more » “Association pro Büvetta in Scuol-Tarasp”
3 October 2018
The year 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s (1819-1901) visit to Switzerland. The Queen spent five weeks in the country from August 7 to September 9, 1868. The queen withdrew from public life after the death of her husband, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861). She embarked on this journey in memory of … Read more » “The Queen in Switzerland”
