Michael van Orsouw01.05.2025In her day, Queen Victoria was the most powerful woman in the world. She came to Switzerland in 1868 to rest and recuperate, and made numerous sketches and paintings of the Swiss scenery. Many of these watercolours and drawings survive today.
Michael van Orsouw10.04.2025King Albert I of Belgium was a keen and experienced mountain climber. He scaled many Swiss peaks and even completed a first ascent in 1907. Tragically, despite his mountaineering skills, a climbing accident ended his life.
Michael van Orsouw13.03.2025Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi, visited Switzerland nine times and was an admirer of Swiss art, of which she purchased two pieces – setting in motion a trail of events that led all the way to the Federal Palace in Bern.
Medea Vögeli25.07.2024The Swiss town of Thun was a magnet for tourists in the 19th century. The future Emperor Napoleon III also came to the Bernese Oberland, though not for leisure, but to attend the military academy there.
Michael van Orsouw24.08.2023Sisi, the famous Empress Elisabeth, was a much more frequent visitor to Switzerland than previously known. She visited the Bernese Oberland in 1892, where she very much enjoyed a local product normally used as pig feed...
Michael van Orsouw31.08.2022In 1909 the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph visited Switzerland. It could have been an official state visit with the mighty Emperor, but it turned out just a “courtesy call”. The Emperor didn’t set foot on Swiss soil, and was gone again after just a quarter of an hour. A strange episode in Swiss foreign affairs.
Michael van Orsouw01.06.2022Queen Elizabeth II was at the head of the British Royal Family for 70 years. The House of Windsor maintains a close relationship with Switzerland – not politically, but on a more private level. Here we take a look behind at the scenes at the connection between the Swiss and the Royals.
Murielle Schlup28.01.2022Emperor Haile Selassie (1892-1975), who was crowned ‘King of Kings’ in Addis Ababa in 1930, was believed in Ethiopia to have been chosen by God. The Rastafarians in Jamaica even ‘recognised’ him as their Messiah and God. A look at the dual ‘careers’ of a 20th-century figure who was as remarkable as he was controversial.
