Kurt Messmer12.03.2024Swiss cities such as Lucerne experienced an epochal transformation around 1900. Its medieval centre was expanded to include prestigious residential and commercial buildings, stations, postal and administrative offices, school buildings, hotels and villas. However, architecturally this modernisation bore the hallmarks of the past. Time for a virtual tour of Lucerne.
Sara Sigrist05.03.2024A broad cross-section of society came out in unity against the construction of Kaiseraugst nuclear power plant. The burgeoning anti-nuclear movement benefited from a high degree of media resonance.
James Blake Wiener11.01.2024The life of Henry Hotze is largely unknown in Switzerland. Born in Zürich, Hotze emigrated to the United States. Later, he became the Confederacy's chief propagandist in Europe during the U.S. Civil War.
Barbara Basting28.12.2023The Reformation brought stricter social mores to many places in Europe, and artists had to adapt if they didn’t want to lose commissions. But these social mores were not popular with everyone – as revealed by this painting by Hans Bock in Basel’s Kunstmuseum.
Karin Stüber14.12.2023Before the national languages established themselves across the territory of what is now Switzerland, its inhabitants spoke the Gaulish language, which later gave way to Latin. Inscriptions offer small insights into the language culture some 1800 years ago.
James Blake Wiener12.12.2023In August 1854, Giovanni Antonio Palla from Cevio and Tommaso Pozzi from Coglio returned to Ticino after becoming wealthy through mining in the Australian state of Victoria. News of their arrival spread like a wildfire. Though few of the 2000 Ticinese in the Australian Gold Rush of the 1850s would be that lucky, they left a unique imprint upon the country.
Michael van Orsouw04.12.2023Marie Josse d’Hemel was a distinguished lady who married a Lucerne patrician. She is also said to have died twice. The first time a gravedigger wanted to steal her expensive clothes, which prompted her to return from the dead and live on for another 20 years – a cautionary tale for any would-be grave robbers.
Felix Graf29.11.2023In November 1834, 17-year-old Amélie Macaire, the daughter of a Genevan manufacturer, married German Count Friedrich von Zeppelin on an island in Constance that was the site of a former monastery. French was the predominant language spoken. And not without reason...