Switzerland In General – Did You Know…

… All of the following?

• The official name of Switzerland is Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin. Which means Swiss Confederation. The Latin name is only used on official documents but it is the reason why Switzerland’s abbreviation is CH.

• Apart from occupation by Napoleon’s France between 1798 and 1815 Switzerland has been an independent country since the year 1499.

• The capital of Switzerland is Bern, while the largest city is Zürich.

• For over 190 years Switzerland has been a neutral country during war times.

• Switzerland has 4 official languages: Swiss German which is spoken by over two thirds of the population, French, Italian, and Romansh.

• Switzerland is a landlocked country in Western Europe, it shares a land border with Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy and France.

• The population of Switzerland is nearly eight million (7,996,026) as of July 2013.

• There are more than 1500 lakes in Switzerland containing around 6% of Europe’s fresh water stocks. The largest of these lakes are Lake Geneva, Lake Constance and Lake Maggiore.

• With a high quality of life, the Swiss cities of Zürich, Geneva and Bern regularly rank in the top 10 most livable cities in the world.

• Encompassing part of the Alps that run through Europe, Switzerland is a very mountainous country with 208 mountains over 3,000m high and 24 over 4,000m. The highest is Monte Rosa at 4,634 m (15,203 ft), however the Matterhorn (4,478 m or 14,692 ft) is the most famous.

  

• The official currency of Switzerland is the Swiss franc.

• CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, is based in Geneva and sitting in the ground under it spanning the Swiss/French border is the Large Hadron Collider that physicists are using for experiments.

• Switzerland is very famous for its chocolate, cheese, banking system, watches and alpine mountain areas.

• Switzerland makes half of the world’s production of luxury watches. The nation has a long history of watch making with a number of leading brands founded in the country including Longines, Patek Philippe, Rolex, TAG Heuer and Tissot.

• Alpine symbolism is a main national identity of Switzerland. Traditionally, farmers herded stock through the alpine hills with folk art, the alphorn and yodel music, cultural traditions. Today alpine areas have a strong ski resort culture in winter, and a hiking and mountain biking culture in summer.

• The Swiss Guards who protect the Vatican, in the Vatican City are dual citizens and the only Swiss citizens allowed to serve in foreign armies.

• Swiss people consume the most chocolate per capita in the world. The country is famous for producing some of the world’s highest quality chocolate (Lindt and Sprüngli) after inventing modern techniques such as conching and tempering.

  

• Some of the most popular sports in Switzerland are skiing, snowboarding and mountaineering.

• Traditional Swiss sports include Schwingen (wrestling), Hornussen, (a cross between baseball and golf) and Steinstossen (stone put).