Interesting Facts About Switzerland

• Time: GMT + 1
• Currency: Swiss Franc
• Capital: Bern
• National Day: August 1st
• Country code: 41
• Electricity: 220V AC, 50Hz
• Population: 7.5 million as of 2006, of which 20% are foreigners
• Religion: Roman Catholic & Protestant constitute over 90%
• Location: Switzerland is a landlocked country, sharing it's border with France on the west, Germany to the north, Austria & Leichtenstein to east, Italy to the south.

Best Places to Visit in Switzerland

In the year 1291, the leaders of the 3 Swiss regions Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden made a contract known as Bundesbrief, that united them in the struggle against foreign rulers. But their independence was destroyed by major events like Thirty Years War and the French Revolution. Finally, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, European Great Powers agreed to recognize Swiss neutrality, a promise that has not been broken.

Switzerland has four national languages - German, French, Italian and Romansch. But they vary greatly in the number of speakers. Romansch has no written language. Most products in the Swiss stores are labeled in German, French and Italian.

• Out of the 26 cantons in Switzerland, German is spoken in 17.
• French is spoken in the western part of the country in 4 cantons - Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud.
• Cantons Bern, Fribourg and Valais are bilingual - German/French
• Italian is spoken in Ticino and four southern valleys of Canton Graubünden.
• Romansch, a language with Latin roots, is spoken in the only trilingual canton, Graubünden.

In a country with 4 national languages, Switzerland is called as Schweiz in German, Suisse in French, Svizzera in Italian and Svizra in Romansch. So you might ask, is the official name of the country any among those? Well, No!
Official name of Switzerland is Confoederatio Helvetica, and this is Latin! The country's international abbreviation CH, is derived from this.
Any Swiss website has a .ch extension. Also Swiss currency is denoted as CHF (CH: Swiss F:Franc)
The popular font "Helvetica" was created in Switzerland, and is named after the country name!

The flag of Switzerland consists of a white cross in the center of a red squared background, it was adopted in 1889.The Swiss flag traditionally stands for freedom, peace, honor and fidelity.
When Switzerland joined UN in 2002, UN protocol officials faced an unusual problem: the Swiss flag is square, but UN rules say that all flags flying at it's headquarters must be oblong. Fortunately this was overridden by another rule, to the effect that a new flag may be hoisted as long as it's total area does not exceed that of the regular flags!

Some interesting facts about Switzerland:

• Victorinox, the manufacturer of the famous Swiss army knife, was founded in 1884.
• Nestlé, founded by Swiss Henri Nestle, is the biggest food company in the world.
• Swiss Guards protect the Pope at the Vatican.
• The famous pharmaceutical companies Roche and Novartis are based in Switzerland.
• The Swiss are world-wide leaders in private banking or asset management for individuals. UBS and Credit Suisse are among the leading banks.
• Housing is expensive, only about one-third of Swiss population live in their own house.
• The Swiss franc is among the world's most stable currencies.
• Switzerland is one of the world's largest watch manufacturers.
• Apart from luxury brands, Switzerland is also known for the world's best selling plastic watch, the Swatch.

The cantons in Switzerland are responsible for the educational services. Most of the children go to public schools, and private schools are generally very expensive. The different stages of education are Kindergarten, Volksschule (elementary school), Gymnasium (secondary school) and Universität (university). Almost all Swiss are literate, the literacy rate of Switzerland is around 99%. The country has around 11 universities.

Switzerland follows direct democracy, a unique political system offering maximum participation to it's citizens. Switzerland is the first and only country to implement people's rights system of government which involves the constitutional initiative (public petitions) and the referendum. The picture here is the Swiss parliament.

• Any Swiss citizen can challenge a law passed by the parliament. If he can gather 50000 signatures, then a national vote has to be scheduled, where voters decide whether to accept or reject the law!
• Any citizen might seek an amendment to the constitution, by gathering 100,000 signatures. The federal council can then create a counter proposal, and
  voters will decide whether to accept the amendment or the counter proposal
  given by the government!

The next module has more details on the Swiss seat of government.

The Swiss government consists of seven members of Federal council, who are elected by the United Federal Assembly for a four year term. The Federal Council serves as the Swiss collective head of state, rather than unitary head of system or President system followed by various countries. Each year one of the seven Councillors is elected by the Federal Assembly as the President of the Swiss Confideration. The President is the highest ranking Swiss official, though he/she is not the head of state. The Federal Council operates through weekly meetings at the Federal Palace in Bern, which is the seat of the Swiss Federal Government.

The neutrality of Switzerland is legendary. It has not involved in any conflicts since 1815, including the two World Wars.

• Switzerland is not part of the European Union
• Though Switzerland hosted offices of United Nations, it was not a member of UN until 2002 for fears of any damage to it's neutrality policy. The people of Switzerland gave their support for UN membership, by 55% vote.
• Switzerland joined Schengen treaty in 2005, the passport free travel zone within Schengen area, and it came into effect on 12th December 2008.

Every able-bodied male Swiss citizen in the age of 19-20 must join the military service for 90 days(Women can also volunteer for the sevice), and then must return for practice every 2 years for couple of weeks. This allows the government to mobilize an army of 400,000 men full armed in just 24 hours, as every citizen has an assault gun at his house. Swiss military system stipulates that the soldiers should keep their personal equipment.
Swiss army men are world famous. A continuing legacy of Swiss mercenary service is the ceremonial Vatican Swiss Guard. Swiss army takes part in some peace keeping missions across the world.

The story of Heidi was written by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, over 100 years ago. Heidi is by far the most popular Swiss literature, that has been translated into 50 languages from the original German version, been filmed over a dozen times and is still a best seller loved by children.
Apart from the original Heidi novel by Spyri, there are two sequels written by her English translator Charles Tritten, Heidi Grows Up and Heidi's Children. Heidiland is a main tourist area in Switzerland, named after the Heidi books.

The main geographical regions of Switzerland are the Jura, Plateau and the Alps.

• Being the land of the Alps, 60 percent of Swiss tourism is concentrated in the Alps and their foothills.
• The plateau is home to more than two-thirds of Swiss population, and occupies a bulk of Swiss surface area.
• The Jura is a limestone range, that covers 12% of Swiss surface area.It stretches from Lake Geneva to Rhine

Switzerland is divided into 26 cantons. Zurich, Basel, Bern, Geneva and Lausanne are the major cities in Switzerland.

• Switzerland's largest city Zurich is the country's economic and cultural hub. The famous Bahnhofstrasse is one of the finest shopping streets in Europe.
• Basel, Switzerland's second largest city, lies close to the French and German frontiers. Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals are the major industries in Basel. River Rhine flows through this city.
• The historic city of Bern, the Swiss capital, is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for it's weather-sheltered shopping arcades, Zytglogge clock tower and Bear pit.
• Geneva has a cosmopolitan atmosphere, being the venue of UN office, headquarters of International Red Cross and various other organizations.
• Lausanne, the lively capital of the canton Vaud, is situated on the north shore of Lake Geneva. It is home to the International Olympic Committee

Switzerland is the source of some major rivers of Europe such as River Rhine, Rhone and Inn. River Rhine originates at the confluence of the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein in Switzerland. The river flows through Lake Constance, passes the Rhine falls and is joined by river Aare, before flowing into Germany where it is the longest river. It drains out in the North Sea.
The picture here is river Aare in Bern. River Aare flows through Thun, Bern, Biel, Olten. Reuss river flows through Swiss cities Lucerne and Emmen. River Rhone flows through Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux and finally drains into Mediterranean sea. River Inn that flows through St.Moritz joins river Danube, before reaching Black Sea, it's final destination.

Switzerland hosts hundreds of lakes. It is said that

• Lake Geneva is the largest freshwater lake in western Europe, and it shares it's border with France.
• Lake Constance is bounded by Switzerland, Germany & Austria.
• Biggest lake that lies wholly within the country is Lake Neuchatel.
• Lake Lucerne and Lake Zurich are the busiest, flocked by tourists in cruises
• Interlaken, as the name indicates, lies between 2 lakes - Lake Thun and Lake Brienz

Edelweiss enjoys the status of being the Swiss national flower, though unofficial. Edelweiss flowers are woolly with white hairs, with characteristic bloom consisting of five to six small yellow flower heads surrounded by leaflets in the form of a star. Scientific Name of Edelweiss is which means "lion's paw". Edelweiss is generally found in high altitudes. Edelweiss Air, an international airline based in Switzerland, is named after the flower.

Alphorn is an archaic instrument about 9 feet long, made from a single log of wood. There are no holes in this instrument, so only natural tones can be produced when blowing alphorn. Yodeling is a single style famous in Alps, characterized by frequent shifts between normal and falsetto voice. Alpsegen is the evening prayer of the alpine shepherd.

Some of the fun facts about Switzerland:

• Albert Einstein published his Theory of Relativity in 1905, when he was working as a patent clerk in Bern
• The flag of the Red Cross is the flag of Switzerland with the colours inverted.
• The flag of Vatican, is the only other square flag, apart from Switzerland's.
• Switzerland has the second highest life expectancy, after Sweden
• 60% of Switzerland's electricity is produced by hydroelectric power.
• Swiss women were the last in Europe to get the vote (apart from Liechtenstein). It was only in 1971 that the male electorate agreed to allow them voting rights at federal level.
• Some 400,000 Swiss emigrated between 1850 and 1914 to North and South America, and founded Swiss colonies. Bern has 26 towns & villages named after it in the US.
• Switzerland leads the world in chocolate consumption. It is said that an average Swiss eats 23lbs of chocolate annually.

The only National Park of Switzerland is located in Engadine Valley in the canton of Graubunden. It is known for it's wide variety of alpine flora and fauna. The local language in this area is Romansch. Major activities for visitors are hiking and watching. The park has over 80km of trails, marked with different colors based on the complexity. Major attractions are the stunning alpine scenery, golden eagle, bearded vulture, marmots, chamois, capricorn and alpine forests. Swiss National park occupies 0.4% of the total Swiss area!

The national museum of Switzerland is located in Zurich, behind the main train station. The museum is housed in a 19th century castle. It has a vast collection of artwork reflecting the cultural diversity of the country.

"Schweizerpsalm" (Swiss Psalm) composed by Alberik Zwyssig in 1841 was declared as the official national anthem of Switzerland in 1981.

Swiss Psalm was written by Leonhard Widmer, a lyricist from Zurich. As Switzerland has four official languages, the original German version was translated into French, Italian and Romansh.

Swiss cuisine mirrors the diversity of local history, and the Swiss treasure the distinct taste of their regional specialties.

• Thinking of Swiss cuisine, the first thing that comes to our mind is Swiss cheese. Famous Swiss cheese products are Gruyere, Emmental and Appenzeller.
• Fondue and Raclette are the most popular Swiss cheese dishes
• Fondue is a warm semi-liquid sauce made of wine, cheese and white flour. Diners dip bits of food into it using a fork.
• Raclette originated in Valais canton of Swiss. Raclette cheese is heated and then scraped onto the plates.
• Rösti is another popular Swiss dish made by frying grated potatoes and shaped into rounds/patties.
• Muesli is a popular Swiss breakfast cereal made of rolled oats, fruit and nuts. It was invented by Dr. Maximilian Bircher-Benner

Swiss chocolates have earned an international fame for high quality.The Swiss began making chocolate in the mid 1800's. Famous Swiss brands include Nestle, Cailler, Lindt, Toblerone. Until Second World War, Swiss chocolate industry was mostly export oriented. But today, Swiss themselves (over 55%) consume most of those. Switzerland has the highest chocolate consumption rate in the world!
Have you heard of Swiss Chocolate Train? This train takes the visitors from Montreaux to Broc, home of the Cailler-Nestle chocolate factory, where you can observe chocolate production, sample the finished product and buy candies at factory prices! The train also stops at Gruyere on the way, where visitors are taken on an excursion to the cheese factory and the local castle.