Mixed bathing beach: a ‘beach of shame’

100 years ago, Weggis opened the first Strandbad, a lido or outdoor swimming area with a beach for sunbathing, with no segregation of the sexes. It gave the local tourist trade a boost, but not everyone was happy about it!

The square in the “Grosse Bäder” of Baden im Aargau, ca. 1780. On the left is the public outdoor pool; on the right, the legendary St Verenabad.
Bathing in the open air

Up to the mid-19th century, the mineral hot baths in Baden im Aargau were known for their open-air thermal pools.

Talented Swiss waterskier Alice Baumann training on Lake Zurich, August 1962.
A balancing act on water

Alice Baumann was one of the world’s most successful waterskiers in the 1960s. Time for a look at some exhilarating photos from the pioneering age of water skiing.

Latest posts

A history of the melancholic mind

Nicole Billeter 23.07.2026 Melancholy was everywhere in the early modern period: in letters, reports and biographies, but also in medical tracts and theological discourse. A diagnosis is speculative, but in some of the descriptions we can recognise what today is referred to as depression.
A depressed person being tormented by sinister spectres. Print from 1788.

From People’s Olympiad to civil war

Christian Koller 21.07.2026 The Olimpiada Popular, or People’s Olympiad, was scheduled to take place in Barcelona in July 1936 as a form of protest against the Olympic Games in Berlin. But on the day of the opening ceremony, the Catalan metropolis became the scene of fierce fighting as the Spanish Civil War broke out. Numerous athletes joined the ranks of those battling to defend the Republic.
‘Hitler’s Olympics’ was one of the topics of protest at the 1936 May Day demonstration in Zurich.

The demise of the money box

Juliane Eberhardt 16.07.2026 For decades, the financial behaviour of the Swiss was based on filling their Sparkässeli. Those little metal boxes where people kept their savings even shaped society’s relationship with its banks. Today they remain as contemporary witnesses of a bygone era.
The money box was a staple of Swiss banking for decades. Now it is a silent witness to a long bygone era.

The Swiss Brothers Who Taught America to Dine

James Blake Wiener 14.07.2026 For nearly a century, no American restaurant stood above Delmonico's in sheer elegance or culinary ambition. Founded in Manhattan in 1827 by Giovanni and Pietro Delmonico, brothers from the Swiss canton of Ticino, Delmonico’s built a legacy of innovation that remains without equal in the history of American fine dining.
Painting by Albert Edward Sterner showing a supper after the opera at Delmonico's in 1898.
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Popular posts

The celestial event over Basel in 1566

James Blake Wiener 30.07.2024 A dazzling array of celestial phenomena occurred over the skies of Basel in July and August 1566. The spectacle was so unusual that it precipitated much public discussion and the publication of a leaflet which reflects a Switzerland grappling with deep social unease and tensions.
The celestial event over Basel on 7 August 1566. Pamphlet by Samuel Apiarius and Samuel Coccius.

Of witches and pagans: the mysterious pagan houses of Ticino

Thomas Weibel 02.07.2026 Ticino’s Blenio Valley is home to a series of fortified cliff dwellings known as the ‘case dei pagani’ or ‘pagan houses’. These near-inaccessible ruins are the setting of many scary stories and continue to puzzle researchers to this day.
Myths still surround the case dei pagani houses, which are mostly found in the Blenio Valley in Ticino.

Sexuality in the Middle Ages

Valérie Lüthi 13.06.2024 If we hazard a look at the medieval era, we discover a history of sexuality that is far more multilayered than we might at first have imagined. While the Christian church sought to extend its influence into private bedchambers, ‘lascivious’ attitudes and practices stood in the way of its ambitions.
Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, 1490-1500.

A royal betrothal at Zurich’s Lindenhof

Anuska Merz 07.04.2026 The Lindenhof hill in Zurich was the site of a royal palace from around the year 850. Carolingian kings and rulers of the Holy Roman Empire regularly spent time there as they travelled around the realm. The Lindenhof experienced what was perhaps its finest moment in 1055.
On 25 December 1055, a royal engagement took place at the Lindenhof in Zurich. Illustration by Marco Heer.

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