Do you remember that old quote by Orson Welles I wrote about in my Beirut gallery? "You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." Let's see what that brotherly love really looks like.
Uploaded on: 2019-12-08. Updated on: 2025-12-16.
Map showing Switzerland location (opens in OpenStreetMap)
Romansh is one of the descendant languages of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, which by the 5th century AD replaced the Celtic and Raetic languages previously spoken in the area. [3]ISO 400, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Although the majority of the population are German-speaking, Swiss national identity is rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, and Alpine symbolism. [1]ISO 1250, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Liechtenstein is the last remnant of the Holy Roman Empire! The principality is a semi-constitutional monarchy headed by the Prince of Liechtenstein. [4]ISO 200, 23mm, f/8.0, 1/320s.
Unlike Vaduz Castle in Vaduz, Gutenberg Castle does not serve as a residence of the princely family of Liechtenstein and is open to the general public as a museum. It was shut when we visited. [5]ISO 200, 23mm, f/8.0, 1/160s.
Interlaken (meaning between the lakes) is famous for its vintage trains. They're not cheap! But then nothing is Switzerland is.ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/850s.
As our side of the mountain plunged into the shadows with the sun going down, the other part acquired an almost Tuscan look.ISO 200, 23mm, f/10.0, 1/120s.
One of my dreams was to visited the Eiger, the north face of which had acquired a sinister reputation being difficult to climb and overall deadly. There's even a place here called the Death Bivouac. On this mountain died Toni Kurz with his companions.ISO 200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/1500s.
The beautiful and compact Château de Chillon began as a Roman outpost, guarding the strategic road through the Alpine passes. Chillon is the setting of Lord Byron's poem The Prisoner Of Chillon (1816) about François de Bonivard. [7]ISO 1600, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/25s.
In the late 1960s, pollution made it dangerous to swim at some beaches of Lake Geneva; indeed, visibility under water was near zero. Most of the fish died. It has dramatically improved now. [8]ISO 400, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/2500s.
