Portal:Switzerland

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Introduction

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in western, central, and southern Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The sovereign state is a federal republic bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km² (15,940 sq mi) (land area 39,997 km² (15,443 sq mi)). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8.5 million people is concentrated mostly on the plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva.

The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the late medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation; it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815 and did not join the United Nations until 2002. Nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to numerous international organisations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably not part of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Eurozone. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties.

Selected general articles

The development of 5 different taxes between 1990 and 2010, which account for 80% - 85% of the annual revenue.

The Swiss federal budget (German: schweizer Bundesbudget) refers to the annual revenue (money received) and expenditures (money spend) of the Swiss Confederation. As budget expenditures are issued on a yearly basis by the government, the federal council, and have to be approved by the parliament, they reflect the country's Fiscal policy.

The budget principles are defined by the Swiss Constitution and have been restated most recently in the 1999 fiscal guidelines of the confederation. In 2010 the federal budget of Switzerland had a size of 62.8 billion Swiss francs, which is an equivalent 11.35% of the country's GDP in that year. In 2014 the federal budget of Switzerland had an estimated size of 66.353 billion Swiss francs, which is an estimated equivalent 10.63% of the country's GDP in that year.
Note that the Swiss federal budget only comprises 31.7% of Swiss public expenditure, the rest being managed by the cantons and the municipalities directly. Read more...
Modern Fasnacht costume from Basel. Fasnacht, a mixture of Christian and pre-Christian beliefs, is a pre-Lenten Carnival.

Swiss folklore describes a collection of local stories, celebrations, and customs of the alpine and sub-alpine peoples that occupy Switzerland. The country of Switzerland is made up of several distinct cultures including German, French, Italian, as well as the Romansh speaking population of Graubünden. Each group has its own unique folkloric tradition.

Switzerland has always occupied a crossroads of Europe. While Switzerland has existed as an alliance and country since 1291, the Swiss as a culture and people existed well before this time. Before the Swiss, the region was occupied by Pagan and later Christian Germanic tribes which would become the Swiss. Before the Germanic peoples, the region was occupied by Roman and Gallo-Roman populations. Finally, before the Romans the Celtic Helvetii lived in what would become Switzerland. In addition to conquest, Switzerland has been a crossroads of Europe since at least the Roman Empire. Constant movement of cultures and ideas into Switzerland has created a rich and varied folklore tradition. Read more...
The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation (SR 10, German: Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (BV), French: Constitution fédérale de la Confédération suisse (Cst.), Italian: Costituzione federale della Confederazione Svizzera (Cost.), Romansh: Constituziun federala da la Confederaziun svizra) of 18 April 1999 (SR 101) is the third and current federal constitution of Switzerland. It establishes the Swiss Confederation as a federal republic of 26 cantons (states). The document contains a catalogue of individual and popular rights (including the right to call for popular referenda on federal laws and constitutional amendments), delineates the responsibilities of the cantons and the Confederation and establishes the federal authorities of government.

The Constitution was adopted by a referendum on 18 April 1999, in which a majority of the people and the Cantons voted in favour. It replaced the prior federal constitution of 1874, which it was intended to be brought up to date without changing its substance. Read more...
Skiing in Zermatt. Switzerland is the first country where winter sports were developed on a large scale

In Switzerland, most of the people have a regular sport activity and one in four is an active member of a sports club. The most important all-embracing organisations for sports in Switzerland are the Federal Office of Sport, and the Swiss Olympic Committee (Swiss Olympic).

Because of its varied landscape and climate, Switzerland offers a large variety of sports to its inhabitants and visitors. While winter sports are enjoyed throughout the country, football and ice hockey remain the most popular sports. Read more...
Map of the territorial evolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy (1291–1798).

The territorial evolution of Switzerland occurred primarily with the acquisition of territory by the historical cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy and its close associates. This gradual expansion took place in two phases, the growth from the medieval Founding Cantions to the "Eight Cantons" during 1332–1353, and the expansion to the "Thirteen Cantons" of the Reformation period during 1481–1513.

The Helvetic Republic (formed 1798) as revised in the Act of Mediation (1803) added further territories of former Associates of the Swiss Confederacy, notably those of the Abbey of St. Gall and the Three Leagues. The territories of the Valais, the Swiss Jura and Geneva were added to the "restored" Confederacy following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Read more...
Extensive telecommunication facilities exist in Switzerland. They include the telephone system, internet, and broadcast media. Read more...
The foreign relations of Switzerland are the primary responsibility of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Some international relations of Switzerland are handled by other departments of the federal administration of Switzerland. Read more...
The canton of Ticino /tɪˈtʃiːnoʊ/, formally the Republic and Canton of Ticino (Italian: Repubblica e Cantone Ticino [tiˈtʃiːno]; Lombard: Canton Tesin [teˈzĩː]; German: Kanton Tessin [tɛˈsiːn]; French: canton du Tessin [tɛsɛ̃]; Romansh: chantun dal Tessin [tɕanˈtun teˈsin]) is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Ticino borders the canton of Uri to the north, the canton of Valais to the west (through the Novena Pass), the canton of Graubünden to the northeast, Italy's regions of Piedmont and Lombardy to the south and it surrounds the small Italian enclave of Campione d'Italia.

Named after the river Ticino, it is the only canton where Italian is the sole official language and represents the bulk of the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland along with the southern parts of Graubünden. Read more...
A church in Fischenthal, a village in the canton of Zürich

Christianity is the predominant religion of Switzerland, its presence going back to the Roman era. Since the 16th century, Switzerland has been traditionally divided into Roman Catholic and Reformed confessions.
However, adherence to Christian churches has declined considerably since the late 20th century, from close to 94% in 1980 to about 66% as of 2017. Furthermore notable is the significant difference in church adherence between Swiss citizens (71%) and foreign nationals (50%) in 2017.

Switzerland as a federal state has no state religion, though most of the cantons (except for Geneva and Neuchâtel) recognize official churches (Landeskirchen), in all cases including the Roman Catholic Church and the Swiss Reformed Church. These churches, and in some cantons also the Old Catholic Church and Jewish congregations, are financed by official taxation of adherents. Read more...
Rhaetian Railway Glacier Express on the Landwasser Viaduct (2007 photograph)

Tourists are drawn to Switzerland's diverse landscape as well as activities. Most interesting are the Alpine climate and landscapes, in particular for skiing and mountaineering.

As of 2016, tourism accounted for an estimated 2.6% (CHF 16.8 billion) of Switzerland's gross domestic product, down from 2.6% (CHF 12.8 billion) in 2001. Read more...
One of the many buildings of Novartis in Basel

The pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland directly and indirectly employs about 135,000 people. It contributes to 5.7% of the gross domestic product of Switzerland and contributes to 30% of the country's exports.

Switzerland is home to many pharmaceutical companies, including very large groups, such as Novartis and Hoffmann-La Roche. In 2013, 41 life science companies had their international headquarters (and 29 more their regional headquarters) in Switzerland. Read more...
Television in Switzerland was introduced in 1950. People who live in Switzerland and receive television services are required by law to pay a television licence fee, which is used to finance the public radio and television service SRG SSR. Licence fee-payers in all the linguistic regions of Switzerland all pay the same amount (462 CHF for 2008, 365 CHF since 01/01/2019, counting both radio and television licences) and, in return, are entitled under the law to services of equal quality. Read more...
Language distribution in Switzerland (2000). The Romandy is shown in green.

Romandy (French: la Romandie) is the French-speaking part of western Switzerland. In 2018, about 2.1 million people, or 25.1% of the Swiss population, lived in Romandy. The bulk of the romand population lives in the Arc Lémanique region along Lake Geneva, connecting Geneva, Vaud and the Lower Valais. Read more...
Voting in Switzerland (called votation) is the process by which Swiss citizens make decisions about governance and elect officials. The polling stations are opened on Saturdays and Sunday mornings but most people vote by post in advance. At noon on Sunday (Abstimmungssonntag in German, Dimanche de votation in French), voting ends and the results are usually known during the afternoon.

Switzerland's voting system is unique among modern democratic nations in that Switzerland practices direct democracy in parallel with representative democracy, which is why the Swiss system is known as a semi-direct democracy. Direct democracy allows any citizen to challenge any law approved by the parliament or, at any time, propose a modification of the federal Constitution. In addition, in most cantons all votes are cast using paper ballots that are manually counted. At the federal level, voting can be organised for:
- Elections (election of the Federal Assembly)
- Mandatory referendums (votation on a modification of the constitution made by the Federal Assembly)
- Optional referendums (referendum on a law accepted by the Federal Assembly and that collected 50,000 signatures of opponents)
- Federal popular initiatives (votation on a modification of the constitution made by citizens and that collected 100,000 signatures of supporters)
Read more...
The Council of States (German: Ständerat, French: Conseil des États, Italian: Consiglio degli Stati, Romansh: Cussegl dals Stadis) is the smaller chamber of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, and is considered the Assembly's upper house, with the National Council being the lower house. There are 46 Councillors.

Twenty of the country's cantons are represented by two Councillors each. Six cantons, traditionally called "half cantons", are represented by one Councillor each for historical reasons. These are Obwalden, Nidwalden, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden. Read more...
Satellite image of the Swiss Plateau between the Jura and the Alps

The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau (German: Schweizer Mittelland; French: plateau suisse; Italian: altopiano svizzero) is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface area, and is partly flat but mostly hilly. The average height is between 400 metres (0.25 mi) and 700 metres (0.43 mi) AMSL. It is by far the most densely populated region of Switzerland, the center of economy and important transportation. Read more...
The Federal Assembly (German: Bundesversammlung, French: Assemblée fédérale, Italian: Assemblea federale, Romansh: Assamblea federala) is Switzerland's federal legislature. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace.

The Federal Assembly is bicameral, being composed of the 200-seat National Council and the 46-seat Council of States. The houses have identical powers. Members of both houses represent the cantons, but, whereas seats in the National Council are distributed in proportion to population, each canton has two seats in the Council of States, except the six 'half-cantons', which have one seat each. Both are elected in full once every four years, with the last election being held in 2015. Read more...
Satellite image of Switzerland in October 2002. On the north side of the Alps, the regions located above 2000m are covered by snow. The canton of Ticino (on the south side) is almost snow-free in early autumn.

The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps (German: Schweizer Alpen, French: Alpes suisses, Italian: Alpi svizzere, Romansh: Alps svizras), represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions. The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared with other countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein.

The Swiss Alps comprise almost all the highest mountains of the Alps, such as Dufourspitze (4,634 m), the Dom (4,545 m), the Liskamm (4,527 m), the Weisshorn (4,506 m) and the Matterhorn (4,478 m). The other following major summits can be found in this list of mountains of Switzerland. Read more...
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is the central bank of Switzerland, and is therefore responsible for the monetary policy of the nation of Switzerland and also for the issuing of Swiss franc banknotes.

The bank is otherwise known as: German: Schweizerische Nationalbank; French: Banque nationale suisse; Italian: Banca nazionale svizzera; Romansh: Banca naziunala svizra, which are the four official languages of the country. Read more...
The territory of modern Switzerland was a part of the Roman Republic and Empire for a period of about six centuries, beginning with the step-by-step conquest of the area by Roman armies from the 2nd century BC and ending with the decline of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.

The mostly Celtic tribes of the area were subjugated by successive Roman campaigns aimed at control of the strategic routes from Italy across the Alps to the Rhine and into Gaul, most importantly by Julius Caesar's defeat of the largest tribal group, the Helvetii, in 58 BC. Under the Pax Romana, the area was smoothly integrated into the prospering Empire, and its population assimilated into the wider Gallo-Roman culture by the 2nd century AD, as the Romans enlisted the native aristocracy to engage in local government, built a network of roads connecting their newly established colonial cities and divided up the area among the Roman provinces. Read more...
The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation. In some situations, Latin is used, particularly as a single language to denote the country.

In 2017, the population of Switzerland was 62.6% native speakers of German (58.5% speak Swiss German and/or 11.1% Standard German at home); 22.9% French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Arpitan dialects); 8.2% Italian (mostly Swiss Italian, but including Lombard dialects); and 0.5% Romansh. The German region (Deutschschweiz) is roughly in the east, north and center; the French part (la Romandie) in the west and the Italian area (Svizzera italiana) in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; the canton of Graubünden is officially trilingual. Read more...
This page contains a sortable table listing all major mountains and hills of Switzerland. The table includes all summits that have a topographic prominence of at least 300 metres (984 ft), regardless of absolute height or other merit, ranking them by height and prominence. For a list of mountains with lower prominence, see List of mountains of Switzerland above 3000 m and List of mountains of Switzerland above 3600 m. For a list of mountains including topographic isolation, see List of most isolated mountains of Switzerland.

Along with the lakes, mountains constitute a major natural feature of Switzerland with most of the cantons having summits exceeding 2,000 metres (7,000 ft) and three of them having summits exceeding 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). The two main mountain ranges are the Alps (south and east) and the Jura (north and west), separated by the Swiss Plateau which also includes a large number of hills. Topographically, the three most important summits of Switzerland are those of Monte Rosa (most elevated), the Finsteraarhorn (most prominent) and Piz Bernina (most isolated). Read more...
The Old Swiss Confederacy in the 18th century

The Old Swiss Confederacy (Modern German: Alte Eidgenossenschaft; historically Eidgenossenschaft, after the Reformation also République des Suisses, Res publica Helvetiorum "Republic of the Swiss") was a loose confederation of independent small states (cantons, German Orte or Stände) within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland.

It formed during the 14th century, from a nucleus in what is now Central Switzerland, expanding to include the cities of Zürich and Berne by the middle of the century. This formed a rare union of rural and urban communes, all of which enjoyed imperial immediacy in the Holy Roman Empire. Read more...

Did you know...

... that the extinct ant Odontomachus pseudobauri was bought from an amber dealer in Basel, Switzerland?
... that the Swiss government made detailed plans to acquire and test nuclear weapons during the Cold War?
... that in Osmanoğlu and Kocabaş v. Switzerland, the court ruled that compulsory mixed-gender swimming lessons in public school do not violate the freedom of religion of Muslim families?
... that cheese soup, referred to as Kassuppe, is a specialty dish in Central Switzerland?
... that the 2018 Zürich ePrix was the first circuit car race held in Switzerland since the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten?
... that Switzerland's Poya Bridge was constructed together with an adjacent tunnel containing an underground roundabout?

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Selected images

Inauguration in 1882 of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel connecting the southern canton of Ticino, the longest in the world at the time
Swiss cantons
The Greater Zürich Area, home to 1.5 million inhabitants and 150,000 companies, is one of the most important economic centres in the world.
National languages in Switzerland (2016):
  German (62.8%)
  French (22.9%)
  Italian (8.2%)
  Romansh (0.5%)
Fondue is melted cheese, into which bread is dipped
The 1291 Bundesbrief (Federal charter)
The high valley of Engadine. Tourism constitutes an important revenue for the less industrialised alpine regions.
Percentage of foreigners in Switzerland (2016)
Switzerland has the tallest dams in Europe, among which the Mauvoisin Dam, in the Alps. Hydroelectricity is the most important domestic source of energy in the country.
Swiss-built Mowag Eagles of the Land Forces
In 2003, by granting the Swiss People's Party a second seat in the governing cabinet, the Parliament altered the coalition which had dominated Swiss politics since 1959.
The campus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ)
The Swiss Federal Council in 2016 with President Johann Schneider-Ammann (front, centre)
Köppen-Geiger climate classification map for Switzerland.
Roger Federer has won a record 20 Grand Slam singles titles, making him the most successful men's tennis player ever.
The Omega Speedmaster worn on the moon during the Apollo missions. In terms of value, Switzerland is responsible for half of the world production of watches.
Alphorn concert in Vals
Physical map of Switzerland
Some Swiss scientists who played a key role in their discipline (clockwise):
Leonhard Euler (mathematics)
Louis Agassiz (glaciology)
Auguste Piccard (aeronautics)
Albert Einstein (physics)
The Old Swiss Confederacy from 1291 (dark green) to the sixteenth century (light green) and its associates (blue). In the other colours are shown the subject territories.
Founded in 44 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, Augusta Raurica (near Basel) was the first Roman settlement on the Rhine and is now among the most important archaeological sites in Switzerland.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was not only a writer but also an influential philosopher of the eighteenth century (his statue in Geneva).
The LHC tunnel. CERN is the world's largest laboratory and also the birthplace of the World Wide Web.
The first Federal Palace in Bern (1857). One of the three cantons presiding over the Tagsatzung (former legislative and executive council), Bern was chosen as the permanent seat of federal legislative and executive institutions in 1848, in part because of its closeness to the French-speaking area.
The Landsgemeinde is an old form of direct democracy, still in practice in two cantons.
The Act of Mediation was Napoleon's attempt at a compromise between the Ancien Régime and a Republic.
Ski area over the glaciers of Saas-Fee
Urbanisation in the Rhone Valley (outskirts of Sion)
A Swiss Air Force F/A-18 Hornet at Axalp Air Show
General Ulrich Wille, appointed commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army for the duration of World War I
The Federal Palace, seat of the Federal Assembly and the Federal Council
Population density in Switzerland (2016)
The monochromatically reversed Swiss flag became the symbol of the Red Cross Movement, founded in 1863 by Henry Dunant.
Entrance of the new Lötschberg Base Tunnel, the third-longest railway tunnel in the world, under the old Lötschberg railway line. It was the first completed tunnel of the greater project NRLA.

In the news

13 March 2019 –: An avalanche on Ben Nevis kills two French nationals and a Swiss national. A fourth climber is injured and is receiving treatment at a hospital in Glasgow. (BBC); A team of physicists at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, assisted by colleagues in Switzerland and the United States, successfully returns the state of a quantum computer a fraction of a second into the past. (Phys.org) (The Independent)