Andrea Weidemann21.12.2022Trading in goods has been institutionalised and formalised since the Middle Ages. Places such as stock exchanges have become increasingly important. With the formation of the first joint-stock companies during the Early Modern Period, there was a growing need to co-finance these organisations, and new financial instruments found their way onto the trading floors of the world’s financial markets.
Michael Jucker16.12.2022How much religion can there be in sport? And has sport really become a substitute religion? A step back to Swiss wrestling festivals (Schwingfeste), jousting tournaments and monasteries.
Kurt Messmer12.12.2022Five years of acrimonious struggle, city-cantons versus rural cantons, six attempts at a resolution, and finally an agreement stamped with the seals of the eight old towns, valid at the same time for the two new ones, Fribourg and Solothurn. It’s pretty special. It’s probably part of who we are, even now. A derivation with possible interpretations.
Andrej Abplanalp28.11.2022Maestro Martino left his Ticino mountain village, and became the first celebrity chef in history. He built his reputation in the kitchens of the powerful and rich in the 15th century, and is one of the co-founders of Italian cuisine!
James Blake Wiener22.11.2022The Walsers migrated outwards to settle and tame uncultivated pastures in the harsh high altitudes of the Alps between c. 1150-1450. This migration represents one of the last great movements of peoples during the Middle Ages, and the legacy of Walser resourcefulness still looms large in Swiss culture.
Thomas Weibel08.11.2022Wilhelm Tell’s crossbow is, so to speak, the national weapon of Switzerland. In actual fact the weapon has its origins in ancient China, and although superior to the bow the crossbow didn’t have the best reputation.
James Blake Wiener01.11.2022In 926, the notorious Magyars raided and sacked the town and monastery of St. Gall. Thereafter, monks in St. Gall wrote and preserved the most detailed and oldest first-hand descriptions of the Magyar invasions of Western Europe.
Andrea Schaer22.09.2022In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, the thermal baths at Baden im Aargau played host to scores of distinguished visitors. These esteemed guests had access to exclusive baths and bathing areas with special amenities, and some of these areas are still preserved today.
