Bern

The Alps in Switzerland

Switzerland joined the country of central Europe. Switzerland’s organizational capital is Bern, while Lausanne is its judicial Centre.

An interior country of towering mountains, deep Alpine lakes, grassy valleys spotted with neat farmhouses and little villages, and blooming cities that merger the old and therefore the new, Switzerland is that the connection of the various physical and cultural geography of western Europe, famous for both its natural beauty and its way of life.

Parliament Building in Bern

Palace of Nations, Switzerland

The medieval Clock Tower in Bern

 As the clock prepares to strike the hour, large groups gather in front of the Clock Tower in Bern’s Old Town to watch the one-of-a-kind performance that always takes place at this moment. The mechanical figures, including a parade of bears, a jester, a golden rooster and Chronos, the god of time, enthrall visitors young and old from far and near.

In the tower’s interior, however, time seems to stand still. Medieval clockwork mechanisms, dense stone walls and huge wooden beams take visitors on a journey into the past.

Those who make it up the 130 steps inside the structure are rewarded with a breathtaking view of the UNESCO World Heritage Site with its tiled roofs, terraces and narrow lanes. When the sky is clear, you can see all the way to the peaks of the Bernese Oberland.

The Rolex Learning Center at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

The Cathedral the Church of St. Martin

Chalets in the Swiss Alps.

Houses lining the banks of the Aare River in Bern

The Marktgasse in the Old Town of Bern

To survive as a cohesive unit and to guard the neutrality that has been their safeguard, the disparate elements of Swiss people have had to find out a mutual cooperation. Their outlook has been shaped largely by economic and political necessity, which has made Swiss public realistic, cautious, and prudent in accepting innovation and artistic within the use of their resources. Switzerland’s human resource has been effectively educated and efficiently utilized to rework what was a predominantly mountainous, rural, and landlocked country with limited natural resources into one among the foremost diversified and important industrial and commercial countries within the world.

Farms near Furkels, Sankt Gallen canton

Jura Mountains, Neuchâtel canton

Munot Fort, Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Old Bern, Switzerland

The Swiss area became united again in the 11th century under the Holy Roman Empire with its German emperors; however, the remoteness and the gradual decline of the imperial power allowed the rise of quasi-independent territories out of bailiwicks. This development enabled the old-fashioned houses of the Zähringen, Savoy, Kyburg, and Habsburg families to concentrate basic managerial and judicial powers in their own hands by the beginning of the 13th century. In the High Middle Ages these families founded monasteries and new cities to provide secure stopping places for the increasing numbers of merchants participating in the rapidly expanding trade of western Europe. By 1300 some 200 towns existed in what would become Switzerland, but only a few of them learned major significance. Many of the fortified places had several functions: providing a source of revenue, offering a centre for (juridical) administration, defending newly acquired territories, and serving as an outpost for further dynastic expansion. War with the Savoys prompted the Zähringens to found strategically located towns such as Bern, sited on the easily defended great bend of the Aare River; Fribourg, located on a loop of the entrenched Sarine River where a key trade route crossed the river; and the walled city of Murten (Morat), which became the dynasty’s western outlier. Under the Kyburgers, who were recognized in northeastern Switzerland, the settlements of Winterthur, Zug, Aarau, and Baden received town status.

Alpine village in Bern canton, Switzerland.