A report on Valais and Vaud

Valère Basilica dominating the Rhône Valley. By the 12th century, the bishops of Sion began building churches and castles in Sion to represent their power and administer their estates.

The Rhône Valley near Pfynwald. Note the vineyards, pines, and steppic vegetation that are typical of dry Central Valais

Bailiwicks of Bern in Vaud in the 18th century

The Aletsch Glacier, largest in the Alps

Built by the Bishop of Lausanne during the 15th century, Château Saint-Maire has been the seat of the cantonal government since 1803

The Weisshorn, one of the highest peaks of Valais

Predominantly Catholic, the canton includes numerous churches and Alpine chapels (here Maria zum Schnee in Bettmeralp)

The room of the Grand Council of Vaud, the parliament of the canton of Vaud

The Grande Dixence is one of the world's largest dams

St. Gingolph is one of the only two ports on Lake Geneva, and the terminus of the Tonkin Railway

Lausanne, capital and largest city in Vaud

BLS train descending the summit line of the Lötschberg Railway

A postbus waiting on the summit of the Simplon Pass

People gathering at the national cow fighting final

A Brisolée served with local products and wine

It borders the cantons of Vaud and Bern to the north, the cantons of Uri and Ticino to the east, as well as Italy to the south and France to the west.

- Valais

It is located in Romandy, the French-speaking western part of the country; and borders the canton of Neuchâtel to the north, the cantons of Fribourg and Bern to the east, the canton of Valais to the south, the canton of Geneva to the south-west and France to the west.

- Vaud

9 related topics with Alpha

Switzerland

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Landlocked country located at the confluence of Western, Central and Southern Europe.

Founded in 44 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, Augusta Raurica (near Basel) was the first Roman settlement on the Rhine and is now among the most important archaeological sites in Switzerland.

The Old Swiss Confederacy from 1291 (dark green) to the sixteenth century (light green) and its associates (blue). In the other colours shown are the subject territories.

The Act of Mediation was Napoleon's attempt at a compromise between the Ancien Régime and a Republic.

The first Federal Palace in Bern (1857). One of the three cantons presiding over the Tagsatzung (former legislative and executive council), Bern was chosen as the permanent seat of federal legislative and executive institutions in 1848, in part because of its closeness to the French-speaking area.

Inauguration in 1882 of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel connecting the southern canton of Ticino, the longest in the world at the time

General Ulrich Wille, appointed commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army for the duration of World War I

In 2003, by granting the Swiss People's Party a second seat in the governing cabinet, the Parliament altered the coalition that had dominated Swiss politics since 1959.

Köppen–Geiger climate classification map for Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Council in 2022 with President Ignazio Cassis (bottom) standing on an abstract, reduced railway lines map and positioned at their respective political origins

The Federal Palace, seat of the Federal Assembly and the Federal Council

The Landsgemeinde is an old form of direct democracy, still in practice in two cantons.

The colour-reversed Swiss flag became the symbol of the Red Cross Movement, founded in 1863 by Henry Dunant.

A Swiss Air Force F/A-18 Hornet at Axalp Air Show

Swiss-built Mowag Eagles of the Land Forces

A proportional representation of Switzerland exports, 2019

The city of Basel (Roche Tower) is the capital of the country's pharmaceutical industry, which accounts for around 38% of Swiss exports worldwide.

The Greater Zürich area, home to 1.5 million inhabitants and 150,000 companies, is one of the most important economic centres in the world.

The University of Basel is Switzerland's oldest university (1460).

Some Swiss scientists who played a key role in their discipline (clockwise):
Leonhard Euler (mathematics)
Louis Agassiz (glaciology)
Auguste Piccard (aeronautics)
Albert Einstein (physics)

The LHC tunnel. CERN is the world's largest laboratory and also the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

Members of the European Free Trade Association (green) participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area.

Switzerland has the tallest dams in Europe, among which the Mauvoisin Dam, in the Alps. Hydroelectricity is the most important domestic source of energy in the country.

Entrance of the new Lötschberg Base Tunnel, the third-longest railway tunnel in the world, under the old Lötschberg railway line. It was the first completed tunnel of the greater project NRLA.

Population density in Switzerland (2019)

Percentage of foreigners in Switzerland (2019)

Urbanisation in the Rhone Valley (outskirts of Sion)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was not only a writer but also an influential philosopher of the eighteenth century.

Roger Federer has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, making him among the most successful men's tennis players ever.

Fondue is melted cheese, into which bread is dipped

National languages in Switzerland (2016):
German (62.8%)
French (22.9%)
Italian (8.2%)
Romansh (0.5%)

The treaty also allowed Switzerland to increase its territory, with the admission of the cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva.

Swiss wine is produced mainly in Valais, Vaud (Lavaux), Geneva and Ticino, with a small majority of white wines.

The "Thirteen-Canton Confederation" of the Old Swiss Confederacy (1513–1798)

Cantons of Switzerland

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The 26 cantons of Switzerland (Kanton; canton ; cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: cantun; Vallader and Puter: Chantun; Sutsilvan: cantùn; Rumantsch Grischun: chantun) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation.

The 22 cantonal coats of arms (all but Jura, with the half-cantons represented jointly) in stained glass set in the dome of the Federal Palace of Switzerland (c. 1900)

Caricature of the division of Basel, 1833

Geneva (formally République et canton de Genève, 'Republic and canton of Geneva'), Jura, Neuchâtel, Valais, Vaud and Ticino.

Canton of Bern

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One of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation.

Helveto-Roman settlement Bern-Engehalbinsel

Burgundian and Allamanni lands between 534 and 843

Lands held by the main noble families around 1200

The Swiss Confederacy before the Battle of Sempach (1387)

The Swiss Confederacy in the 18th century

The districts of the Bernese Aargau before the creation of the Canton of Aargau

Districts of the Canton of Bern in the 18th Century

Map of the modern Canton of Vaud, which was annexed by Bern from 1536 until 1798

Siege and execution of the garrison at Grandson

View from the Chasseral across the Mittelland to the Bernese Alps

Wetterhorn, painting by Joseph Anton Koch, 1824

The Grand Council, the cantonal parliament

Capital city of Bern with the Aare, Gothic Nydeggkirche on left

To the west lie the canton of Neuchâtel, the canton of Fribourg and canton of Vaud.

To the south lies the canton of Valais.

Lake Geneva

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Deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France.

View of Lake Geneva about between Vevey in front, Lausanne in the back behind Mont Pèlerin (CH) on the right and Évian-les-Bains (F) on the left, shot from a place between Caux and Glion above Montreux

View of the lake and the Chablais Alps from Caux

CGN paddle steamer in 1926 near Vevey with the Dents du Midi in background

Sixty per cent (345.31 km2) of the lake belongs to Switzerland (the cantons of Vaud, Geneva and Valais) and forty per cent (234.71 km2) to France (the department of Haute-Savoie).

Bernese Alps

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The Bernese Alps (Berner Alpen, Alpes bernoises, Alpi bernesi) are a mountain range of the Alps, located in western Switzerland.

The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps

The road of the Grimsel Pass is the only one connecting the cantons of Bern and Valais

Although the name suggests that they are located in the Berner Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Valais, Fribourg and Vaud, the latter being usually named Fribourg Alps and Vaud Alps respectively.

Helvetic Republic

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Sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars.

The Helvetic Republic, with borders according to the first Helvetic constitution of 12 April 1798

Alois von Reding led Central Swiss troops against the French.

William Tell fights the revolution (1798), by Dunker, praises the struggle of the Old Confederation against the Helvetic revolution supported by French invasion. It depicts the Swiss folk hero William Tell, carrying a shield with the Rütlischwur, and his son fighting the revolution, represented as a chimera wearing a phrygian cap

The awakening of the Swiss (1798), by Midart, celebrates the transformation of the Old Confederation into the Helvetic Republic. It shows a Swiss who wakes up from his sleep (the ancien régime) and is handed his weapons by Liberty. In the background, the rising sun and the Gallic rooster herald the new era

The provisional constitution of 15 January 1798

The Swiss Confederacy, which until then had consisted of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance (and ruling over subject territories such as Vaud), was invaded by the French Revolutionary Army and turned into an ally known as the "Helvetic Republic".

Valais

Sonderbund War

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Civil war in Switzerland, then still a relatively loose confederacy of cantons.

Distribution of confessions at the start of the 19th century.

The general staff of the federal army: Kurz, Minscher, Enloff, Bontemps, Gerwer, Müller, Ziegler, Bourkhardt, Dufour, Rilliet de Constant, Luvini, Donats, Ochsenbein and Gmür

Swiss Army uniforms of the Sonderbund War

The 2nd Division crosses the Emme river into Littau.

The Sonderbund consisted of the cantons of Lucerne, Fribourg, Valais, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Zug, all predominantly Catholic and governed by conservative administrations.

After publishing a proclamation on October 26, Dufour appointed as division commanders: Peter Ludwig von Donatz (Grisons), Johannes Burckhardt and Eduard Ziegler (Zürich) from among the Conservatives and Louis Rilliet de Constant (Vaud), Dominik Gmür, Giacomo Luvini (Ticino) and Ochsenbein (Bern) from among the Radicals.

Lausanne

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Aerial view from 250 m by Walter Mittelholzer (1919)

The agglomeration of Lausanne, Lake Geneva and the Alps.

The Charles-Bessières bridge with Lausanne Metro car. In the background the cathedral of Notre-Dame and the old town.

Stairs (escaliers du marché) in the old city.

The Protestant Cathedral of Notre Dame dominates the Lausanne skyline (left: Old Academy, right: Palais de Rumine).

The Lausanne Metro is a rubber tyre metro system

The Lausanne Tram is completely on reserved track, single line, even underground

Aerial view of Lausanne (railway station in the centre and Parc de Milan at the bottom).

The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (photo) and the University of Lausanne form a large campus near the lake Geneva.

In addition to the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne, the Palais de Rumine hosts several museums.

The seat of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne

Administrative building of the Vaudoise Assurances

Olympic Museum and Archives of the International Olympic Committee

Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman

Lausanne is the capital and largest city of the Swiss french speaking canton of Vaud.

The metropolitan area of Lausanne-Geneva (including Vevey-Montreux, Yverdon-les-Bains, Valais and foreign parts), commonly designated as Arc lémanique was over 1.3 million inhabitants in 2017 and is the fastest growing in Switzerland.

Chablais

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Province of the Duchy of Savoy.

This region is currently divided into three territories, the Chablais savoyard, the Chablais valaisan, and the Chablais vaudois, and is now split across two countries: France (department of Haute-Savoie) and Switzerland (cantons of Valais and Vaud).