Cantons of Switzerland

Valais

Tesino

Grills

Geneva

Vaud

Neuchâtel

Jura

Bern

Turgovia

Zurich

Argovia

Lucerne

Soleura

Basel-Campiña

Schaffhausen

Uri

Schwyz

Glarus

San Galo

AI

AR

Obwalden

Nidwalden

Zug

Freiburg

Basel-City

France

Italy

Liecht.

Austria

Germany

In Switzerland, the cantons constitute the political and administrative entity on which the nation-state is built: in fact, the so-called Helvetic Confederation, strongly federal in nature, did not adopt its current status until 1848, date up to which each of the cantons then existing (since then there have been minor changes in their number and configuration) had its own borders, army, seals and currency and, despite being part, on a theoretical level, of the Sacred Germanic Roman Empire, enjoyed in practice virtually unlimited independence since the Swiss victory over Emperor Maximilian I at the Battle of Dornach in 1499. The structure and characteristics of the Swiss cantons are highly varied, with extensions between 37 and 7,105 square kilometers., and populations between the approximately fourteen thousand inhabitants of the least populated area to the more than one million two hundred thousand inhabitants of Zurich.

All powers not expressly attributed by the Constitution to the Confederation belong to the cantons, which in turn decide what powers they assign to their municipalities, which gives rise to great heterogeneity in the degree of autonomy and level of municipal powers. Two of the cantons still maintain direct democracy, while in the rest the popular will is expressed at the polls.

History

In the 16th century, the former Swiss Confederation was made up of 13 independent cantons, of which there were two different types: six rural cantons and seven urban cantons. Although technically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they became independent when the Swiss defeated Emperor Maximilian I in 1499 under the terms of the Treaty of Basel.

The six rural cantons were democratic republics, while the seven urban cantons were oligarchic republics controlled by noble families.

List of Swiss cantons

There are 26 cantons in Switzerland, one of them being a super-canton (Bern, its capital) and six of them semi-cantons that have been divided from three original cantons (Basel, Appenzell and Unterwalden), either because the two communities have always They have been separated, as in Unterwalden, by historical religious wars, as in Appenzell, or differences in development between city and country, as in the case of Basel.

Cantons of the Helvetic Federation

Shield and abbreviation	Canton	Creation	Capital	Population (2008)	Surface (km2)	Density	Communes (2009)	Language(s)
ZH	Zurich	1351	Zurich	1 332 727	1729	771	171	German
BE	Bern	1353	Bern	969 299	5959	163	392	German and French
L	Lucerne	1332	Lucerne	368 742	1493	247	88	German
UR	Uri	1291	Altdorf	35 162	1077	33	20	German
SZ	Schwyz	1291	Schwyz	143 719	908	158	30	German
OW	Obwalden	1291	Sarnen	34 429	491	70	7	German
NW	Nidwalden	1291	Stans	40 737	276	148	11	German
GL	Glaris	1352	Glaris	38 370	685	56	25	German
ZG	Zug	1352	Zug	110 384	239	462	11	German
FR	Freiburg	1481	Freiburg	268 537	1671	161	168	French and German
SO	Soleura	1481	Soleura	251 830	791	318	126	German
BS	Basel-City	1501	Basel	186 672	37	5045	3	German
BL	Basel-Campiña	1501	Liestal	268 537	518	518	86	German
SH	Schaffhausen	1501	Schaffhausen	75 303	298	253	27	German
AR	Appenzell Foreign Rhodes	1513	Herisau2	53 054	243	218	20	German
AI	Appenzell Rodas Interiores	1513	Appenzell	15 549	173	90	6	German
GS	San Galo	1803	San Galo	471 152	2026	233	86	German
GR	Grills	1803	Coira	190 459	7105	27	200	German, romanche and Italian
AG	Argovia	1803	Aarau	591 632	1404	421	229	German
TG	Turgovia	1803	Frauenfeld	241 811	991	244	80	German
IT	Tesino	1803	Bellinzona	332 736	2812	118	181	Italian
VD	Vaud	1803	Lausanne	688 245	3212	214	375	French
VS	Valais	1815	Sion	303 241	5224	58	143	French and German
NE	Neuchâtel	1815	Neuchâtel	170 924	803	213	53	French
GE.GE	Geneva	1815	Geneva	446 106	282	1582	45	French
JU	Jura	1979	Delémont	69 822	838	83	64	French

Notes

1. On 31 December 2001, National Statistics,
2. Headquarters of the government and the cantonal parliament, the seat of the judicial authority is Trogen.

Two-letter abbreviations are widely used to refer to Swiss cantons. For example, vehicle license plates or the ISO 3166-2:CH code with the prefix "CH-" (for example: CH-SZ for the canton of Schwyz).

Evolution

Grosse Scheidegg, Canton of Bern

The first three primitive cantons:

• 1291 - Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden (divided in: Obwalden and Nidwalden).

The confederation of the 8:

• 1335 - Lucerne
• 1351 - Zurich
• 1352 - Zug, Glaris
• 1353 - Bern

The confederation of the 13:

• 1484 - Fribourg, Soleura
• 1501 - Basel (separated in Basel-City and Basel-Campiña), Schaffhausen
• 1513 - Appenzell

The Helvetic Republic:

• 1803 - San Galo, Argovia, Turgovia, Tesino, Vaud

Swiss Confederation:

• 1815 - Grisones, Valais, Neuchâtel, Geneva
• 1979 - Jura

Names in the different official languages

* Official name(s) of the canton.