Switzerland's first motorway ran from Lucerne to Ennethorw. Illustration by Marco Heer.
Switzerland’s first motorway

In summer 1955, Switzerland’s first motorway was opened in Lucerne. It was the first piece of the puzzle of what is now the national road network, today covering around 2,254 kilometres.

Im Oktober 1944 kam es im Val Formazza nahe der Schweizer Grenze zu einem Kampf zwischen den sich zurückziehenden Partisanen und den deutschen und faschistischen Truppen. Einige Widerstandskämpfer konnten in die Schweiz flüchten.
The Ossola Republic

In autumn 1944, partisan groups liberated a sizeable territory around Domodossola from the Nazis and founded their own republic. But the resistance fighters were at odds with one another and after just over a month the dream of an independent state came to an end. The story of a tragedy on the border with Switzerland.

The Bürgenstock: an idyllic ensemble with hotels, mountains, lake and lift. Postcard from 1928.
Europe’s highest open-air lift

The Bürgenstock has always known how to skilfully attract attention, as it did back in 1905 for example with the spectacular Hammetschwand lift – a marvel of Swiss engineering. Over the years, the lift has been a source of both admiration and rumour.

Latest posts

Visiting the Rigi used to make people ill, why?

Adi Kälin 22.10.2024 120 years ago, many people complained of severe diarrhoea and vomiting following a visit to the Rigi. For a long time, people blamed the ‘Rigikrankheit’ (as the condition was known) on the mountain air, until a high profile defamation trial uncovered a major environmental scandal.
Tourists on the Rigi. Postcard from 1910.

Ossola’s partisans in Swiss internment camps

Raphael Rues 17.10.2024 In 1944, many partisans from the Ossola region fled to Switzerland, where they were detained in remote internment camps.
Fugitive partisans from the Ossola region arriving in Bern in autumn 1944. They were then sent to various internment camps.

Green gold from Dutch India

Gabriel Heim 15.10.2024 In the late 19th century, landlocked Switzerland was looking for ways to harness the immeasurable diversity of tropical botany. It found what it was looking for in Buitenzorg on the island of Java.
‘Buitenzorg, botanic garden, Sterculia with Pernod/buttress roots’. Stereograph taken by Carl Schröter, 1898.

The Saracen Raids of Early Medieval Switzerland

James Blake Wiener 10.10.2024 During the tenth century, barbarian raids affected large parts of what is now Switzerland. Seizing control of the western alpine passes, Saracens from the Emirate of Fraxinetum dominated the crucial arteries of trade and pilgrimage between France, Italy, and Switzerland for nearly a century. Much of Switzerland fell under their sway.
The capture of Syracuse (877-878), the Byzantine capital of Sicily, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes.
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Popular posts

A poisoned marriage: the Buser case

Patrik Süess 15.08.2024 The restrictive divorce laws of the 19th century repeatedly led to human tragedies. In the case of the Buser couple, they even resulted in murder.

Switzerland’s ‘War of Sticks’ of 1802

Noah Businger 17.09.2024 The battle over freedom and liberties led to a game-changing civil war in Switzerland in the early 19th century.
The Stecklikrieg left traces in Bern’s old town that can still be seen today. Bullet hole from a cannon ball fired during the siege of Bern.

Willisau. A small town and open history book

Kurt Messmer 03.10.2024 Small towns are rich in cultural history, remnants of which leave their mark on the public space and shape our historical awareness. Willisau is no exception: a small town that wears its biography openly, with an enticing mix of the typical and the unusual that is both instructive and appealing.
Willisau, pictured before 2013

The Saracen Raids of Early Medieval Switzerland

James Blake Wiener 10.10.2024 During the tenth century, barbarian raids affected large parts of what is now Switzerland. Seizing control of the western alpine passes, Saracens from the Emirate of Fraxinetum dominated the crucial arteries of trade and pilgrimage between France, Italy, and Switzerland for nearly a century. Much of Switzerland fell under their sway.
The capture of Syracuse (877-878), the Byzantine capital of Sicily, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes.

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