Author: Maarten Koning

Okjökull Letter to the Future

Millions of years ago, a significant portion of the European continent was submerged underwater. During the last ice age, approximately 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, the same continent was covered by a thick layer of ice. The previous ‘small’ European ice age was between 1430 and the second half of the nineteenth century.

It was on average 1-2 degrees colder than it is today. In Roman times, Egypt and Syria were fertile agricultural areas, and the region was much wetter and colder.

In other words, climate change is not a human creation, but rather a natural phenomenon, as humankind is a part of the same natural ecosystem. It does not alter the fact that the presence of humanity is responsible for (too) rapid and significant changes in the ecosystem, flora and fauna on planet earth.

The explosive population growth from around half a billion people in 1800 to more than seven billion in 2020, (industrial) pollution, deforestation of continents (starting in Europe in the 17th-20th century), the cultivation of land for (gigantic) cities, agriculture, golf courses, ports, airports, etc., mobility and the use of natural resources have a massive impact on ecosystems. Humankind is indeed disruptive. That is a fact.

On the other hand, there have always been natural predecessors, such as all-powerful dinosaurs, meteorite impacts, volcanic eruptions or the climate changes as mentioned above. Planet Earth will continue to orbit the Sun for millions of years to come, regardless of whether it is a few degrees warmer or colder, with or without glaciers.

Humankind is not only disruptive, however. People can also positively influence development. Fortunately, they do so, not only for the sake of nature, ecosystems, flora, and fauna, but also to improve the quality of life for humans.

The Rhine near Basel is an example. Who could have imagined swimming in this dead river forty years ago?  Nowadays, man and fish are happily swimming around again. The Salmon is not yet able to do so, but that is due to other (French) obstacles.

For centuries, the mobility of people and goods has led to the massive migration of animals, plants, bacteria, and viruses. Rabbits in Australia, the potato in Europe, as well as the flu in South America, syphilis, Spanish flu, and coronavirus, are just a few examples. Around 800 species of plants and animals inhabit Switzerland nowadays, compared to a few hundred years ago.

CO2 emissions and the (proven) relation with global warming is just one of the facets that will be discussed in the new exhibition (Earth at its Limits) in the beautiful Historical Nature Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum) of Basel (see under agenda).

The show is also a (late) tribute to the American scientist Eunice Newton Foote (1818-1888).  She discovered the relationship between CO2 and global warming as early as 1856. But she was a woman, and John Tyndall (1820-1893) got the honour a few years later.

Anyone walking in Graubünden or skiing in the Alps has the idea that the human ‘footprint’ is not that omnipresent. However, this exhibition showcases the evolution of the last hundred years, including the decline of glaciers, land use, pollution, mobility, and the enormous consumption of freshwater.

The Letter to the Future (dated August 2019) and the glacier stone commemorating the disappearance of the Okjökull glacier in Iceland illustrate this development.

There is no place for pessimism, activism or doom and gloom in this informative and well-documented exhibition. Nor does it make sense, because humanity is here and no one wants to return to the dental chair of the 1930s or live without computers, plastics, chemistry, batteries, or modern means of transportation.

The question is: how do we deal with the presence of so many people, and how do we organise the earth for eight or nine billion people soon?

The entrance to this show offers perhaps the quietest natural environment in Basel: five minutes in, and you can listen to nature without human sounds in the heart of the city, on the Münster. It is recommended for every hiker and nature lover.

William Tell

The story of William Tell (Wilhelm Tell) is well known. Whether he existed or not is not relevant. One does not have to take the legends of Romulus and Remus or the Goddess Athena seriously to give them credit for founding Rome and Greece. The story of William Tell is relevant as far as it concerns the historical circumstances of the Alpine peasant communities.

One cannot deny that the Swiss Confederation exists and that its roots go back to the medieval cooperation of rural communities and cities. These Orte and cantons and their citizens founded present-day Switzerland in 1815 and 1848.

The ‘what if’ anachronical question is not relevant, nor does the truth of the Tell-story matter. He is one of the most influential (legendary) personalities of Swiss history and even an international symbol of freedom.

The Tell monument and the Tell museum in Bürglen, as well as the Tell monument in his hometown of Altdorf, tell his story.

The Romans, Alemanni and Swiss-Italians in Oensingen

The castle of Neu-Bechburg was built in the 11th and 12th centuries. The castle still defines the skyline of Oensingen. More than a thousand years earlier, during the Roman period, this place served as an important traffic junction.

The Great St. Bernhard Pass was of great importance. Emperor Claudius (10 BC – 54 AD) made this mountain pass accessible in 43 AD as a preparation for the invasion of England.

This road led from Aosta (Augusta Praetoria Salassorum) to Martigny (Forum Claudii Vallensium), via Avenches (Aventicum) and Oensingen (Roman name unknown) to Windisch (Vindonissa). Another road led from Oensingen via Langenbrück to Kaiseraugst (Augusta Raurica).

Oensingen was the largest Roman town after Olten and Solothurn (Salodurum) in the area of the present canton of Solothurn. In the vicinity of Oensingen, the remains of several Roman villas and numerous other archaeological artefacts have been discovered.

The Celts (the tribe of the Helvetians) and their predecessors already inhabited this area before the arrival of the Romans around 15 BC.

The name Oensingen has an Alemannic origin. The Alemanni immigrated to this area after the departure of the Romans around 410 AD,

The Church of St. George, located in the centre of the village, was probably built on the foundations of a Roman building, possibly a temple.

The first mention of this church dates back to 968. Little else is known about the (early) medieval building history. Solothurn remained Catholic during the Reformation.

The present church was built in the mid-sixteenth century. From 1643 to 1648, the church was rebuilt, and in 1773 Paolo Antonio Pasoli (1738-1804) applied the current architecture and (Baroque) decoration.

Paolo assisted his uncle Gaetano Matteo Pisoni (1713-1782) in the years 1763 – 1770 with the construction of the Cathedral St. Ursen in Solothurn. It explains the similarity and Italian influences.

The centre of the village, with its beautiful houses from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, also reflects the prosperity and importance of this village during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Berner Seeland and the Grosse Moos

Celts and their predecessors and successors (Romans, Burgunder, Alemanni, Franks) inhabited the Berner Seeland in the Three Lakes Region (Drei-Seenland/Pays des Trois Lacs).

The area experienced two Burgundian kingdoms (443-534 and 888-1032), in between the Frankish and Carolingian domination and the rule of local rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.

After the French-speaking Counts of Neuchâtel, the area came under the control of the French-speaking Duchy of Savoy and the Counts of Châlon from 1375. It also explains the Franco-German language border in this area.

The conquest of the seigneurie of Erlach (Cerlier in French) by Berne in 1474, during the Burgundian Wars (1474-1477), brought the area under the control of German-speaking Berne.

The region changed to the Evangelical Reformed Church during the Reformation (after 1525) and shared the fate of Bern of the French invasion and occupation (1798-1813).

  

The Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) was a unitary state with a new administrative division modelled after the French system. The Mediation Act (1803-1813) created the new Confederation of nineteen cantons.

The territory was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815, which was confirmed in the Constitution of 1848. The villages and towns profited from the Bern-Neuchâtel connection and the Biel-Morat railways and trade routes.

The major project of the Jura water system, the Juragewässerkorrektion (encompassing the lakes of Neuchâtel, Bienne, and Morat, as well as the rivers), and the construction of canals (1868-1891 and 1962-1973) made the region a fruit- and vegetable hub of Switzerland.

The marshy moorland (Der grosse Moos/Le grand Marais) no longer flooded the area, and the fertile soil and meadows brought new prosperity.

The villages, towns, and their churches, castles, and buildings are witnesses to a rich past and the influence of French and German cultures.

The Tektonische Arena Sardona, the Martinsloch and the First Swiss Skyscrapers

Swiss cathedrals in Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Basel, Sion, or Chur (one of the oldest dioceses north of the Alps) show tall towers, but mountains are the country’s real skyscrapers.

Millions of years ago, the collisions of slabs of Africa and Europe created the Alps.

The Tectonic Arena Sardona (cantons of Glarus, St. Gall, and Graubünden) shows the formation process of these mountains.

Just below the ridge of the Tschingelhörner, at an altitude of 2,600 metres, opens the famous Martinsloch. This almost triangular opening, with a diameter of about 18 metres, was formed by the erosion of a fragile part of the rock.

Twice a year, the sun shines through the hole and illuminates the church tower of the village of Elm for 2 minutes. It then disappears behind the rock before rising above the ridge some 15 minutes later.

In 2008, UNESCO recognised these mountains as World Heritage sites (source: www.whes.ch).

La Brévine, Siberia of Switzerland

The inhabitants of La Chaux-des-Tallières did not suspect in 1604 that their village would be called La Brévine three centuries later.

In 1604, the (Protestant) inhabitants still had to go to Môtiers, Le Locle, or Travers for their church services.

Catherine de Gonzague de Nevers (1568-1629), wife of Henri I d’Orléans-Longueville (1568-1591), and the Council of State of Neuchâtel permitted the construction of a church. This church was consecrated on 2 December 1604.

The wooden interior of the church is well preserved. Several renovations have taken place in the last two hundred years, including the installation of a marble altar and four new stained glass windows (on the occasion of the four-hundredth anniversary).

Next to this church flows the stream Brévena, which is the measuring equipment for the temperature. The coldest night was on 1 February 1987, – 41.8 °C.

La Brévine is called the Siberia of Switzerland ever since.

La promenade du temps passé shows the history and the most important buildings of the village.

The Temple of La Chaux-du-Milieu

The Valley of the Brévine was already inhabited in the 14th century. The Count of Neuchâtel called the settlement ‘Calvum de Escobon’ in 1310. The name transformed to La Chaux d’Ecoublon, La Tschaux du Meta, and eventually La Chaux-du-Milieu.

Migrants from the growing town of Le Locle moved to the valley in the sixteenth century. The (lucrative) trade between Franche-Comté (owned by the Habsburgs) and the cities of the Swiss Confederation (Eidgenossenschaft) passed through the valley.

After the Reformation, however, the political border became a religious border. The County of Neuchâtel adopted the Protestant faith in 1530; the Franche-Comté remained Catholic.

The cantons of the Eidgenossenschaft governed Neuchâtel from 1512 to 1529, although the Catholic French dynasty of d’Orléans-Longueville owned the County. La Chaux-du-Milieu’s beautiful church (le temple) was built in 1716.

Parish Church St. Martin Cressier

The old parish church of St. Martin in the municipality of Cressier (canton of Neuchâtel) is situated next to Jeanjaquet Castle, or rather, the other way around.

The foundations of the church date back to the sixth and seventh centuries, during the late Roman era. Spolia (materials) from an old Roman temple have been used, and a Roman temple is the predecessor of the church.  The Romans left the region at the beginning of the fifth century.

Aventicum (Avenches) was the first bishopric of this region in the fifth and sixth centuries; Lausanne became the new episcopal city in the sixth century.

In 1180, the Bishop of Lausanne donated the church, its vineyards, forests, fishing grounds, and meadows to the Abbey of Fontaine-André (at Neuchâtel-La Coudre).

Shortly afterwards, the Romanesque tower and the nave were rebuilt. They still exist. The choir was built in 1424. After the construction of the new church of St. Martin in Cressier, Lord Jean Jaquet bought and renovated the church in 1872..