AUGUST 1: SWISS NATIONAL DAY

August 1, 1291 is celebrated throughout Switzerland as the country's birthdate. On that date, representatives from the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden met in Rutli Meadow in the canton of Schwyz to pledge the Oath of Confederation (or the Oath of Rutli Meadow, depicted below), long believed to be the country's founding document.

The Museum of the Swiss Charters in Schwyz houses many documents that tell the story of the Old Swiss Confederacy: the politics of alliance between the “confederates”, their many conflicts and compromises, life in the Middle Ages, and of course the famous military battles. History and myth are presented as two sides of the same coin, illuminating the Swiss spirit and the country's role in the family of nations.

Although the old confederacy was replaced with the modern Federal State in 1848, the Swiss continue to honor their legacy as one of Earth's earliest republics. Wikipedia traces their long, complex history.

Aug. 1 fireworks over the village. We watch the display from the hotel terrace -- oohing and aahing with the other guests. (Notice the outline of the night-time Matterhorn at left). Then we return to our own balcony, where we are bombarded by competing rockets launched from each sector of town,  far into the night.

Traditional August 1 rituals in each village include display of national and cantonal flags (below; Zermatt is in the canton of Valais/Wallis) with ancient dress, musical performances, and sharing of the wonderful Swiss "essen und trinken." Celebrations include joyous ringing of village church bells, followed by fireworks displays (weather permitting), which boom and echo down the canyons here in Zermatt.

I'm updating this page in 2019, and it's worth saying a few words about the Swiss government, since we in the States have had such a painful civics lesson in the past few years.

The Swiss Federal Council is the seven-member executive council that serves as the collective head of state and of government of Switzerland. While the entire council is responsible for leading the federal administration of Switzerland, each councillor heads one of the seven federal executive departments. The position of President of the Swiss Confederation rotates among the seven councillors on a yearly basis, with one year's Vice President of the Federal Council becoming the next year's Confederation President.

While the Swiss drew heavily on the United States Constitution for the organization of the federal state as a whole, they opted for the collegial rather than the presidential system for the executive branch of government. This accommodated the long tradition of the rule of collective bodies in Switzerland. Under the Ancien Régime, the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy had been governed by councils of pre-eminent citizens since time immemorial.

I love this. According to the Swiss order of precedence, the President of the Confederation is "merely" the highest-ranking Swiss official. He/She presides over Council meetings and carries out certain representative functions that, in other countries, are the business of a head of state. In urgent situations where a Council decision cannot be made in time, s/he is empowered to act on behalf of the whole Council. Apart from that, though, s/he is a primus inter pares, having no power above and beyond the other six Councillors.

The collegial system of government has found widespread adoption in modern democracies in the form of cabinet government with collective responsibility. So much for strongman (or heaven forbid,woman) autocrats!  The U.S.could do well to take a cue back from the Swiss.

HERE'S LOOKING @ YOU, CH-3920

IF IT'S BEEN A FEW YEARS since you visited CH-3920 Zermatt, be prepared for a small city, not a village, with 100+ hotels, tens of thousands of visitors, endless construction, and disappearing greenery within the town. Today being a special one, we planned to lunch at the Schoenegg, or "Beautiful Corner" hotel, where we could see how the town is changing.

Luncheon was simple but memorable: First, some good Swiss white Fendant. Then on to a delicious soup: on one side of the table, Andalusian gazpacho, crisply cold and served with a side of violet-adorned sundried tomato/olive tapenade on crackers; and on the other, creamy morel mushroom soup-of-the-day, just singing with forest flavor. (Why must we settle for dried porcinis at home; morels do grow in New England!) To follow up, there were two types of steak tartare: the original, brimming with onion, Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste; and the Asian, zesty with fresh ginger, sesame and green onion. In keeping with today's passion for vertical food, the tartares were each planted with a sprig of parsley and another violet!

Looking out at Zermatt through the new glass railing, you can see the base of the cloud-wrapped Matterhorn, the new copper roof of the Zermatterhof Hotel (to the right of the tall tree just above the wine bucket), the Monte Rosa Hotel across the street and the Mt. Cervin a couple of buildings to the right (look from the menu card up past a green swath of grass to the building whose top floor is all dormer windows). Note the Vispa River, in its concrete banks, bounding through the center of town (just to the right of the menu card.) And notice the "hotel creep" on the side of the far hill.

A few more shots show the river continuing its way through town and down the valley. The turquoise horizontal swath in the center is ALL that is left of the original town center -- just a few tennis courts/ice hockey rinks surrounded by luxurious apartments and shops. And the plywood rooftops at right are the main shopping complex opposite the Bahnhof (across from the Gornergrat Bahn terminus, which is the large, flat roof on the cream-colored building in the vertical picture).

The construction you see immediately below the Schoenegg porch is 7 Heavens, a new luxury condo development we'll cover in another post. Can you see the river wending its way? Happily, the steep hillside across the river is too avalanche-prone for building (and has no Matterhorn view). But it's good for some other things, which will also be the subject of an upcoming post.

Looking across the lower town, you can see the Bahnhof with two red Glacier Express trains waiting on a siding for their trip across the Alps -- ultimately to St. Moritz. The lower part of Zermatt, once sparsely built, is filling in as well. (The panorama concludes with the beautiful Schoenegg balconies at the right.)