Today we’re talking about Switzerland, the land of milk, mountains, chocolate, and money—loads of money. Today, we’re going to learn about the Top 10 Interesting Facts about Switzerland.
Some of them are truly unquestionably and not even arguably shocking, so stay tuned for that. Now we’re going to move on to the facts themselves. So Switzerland is a comparatively small country in Western Europe.
However, its size never stopped it from being the coolest, richest, strongest, and greatest country of all, arguably. Switzerland is a country of many languages and many names. The official names of Switzerland are Schweiz, Swiss, and Switzerland, and the official name of Switzerland is Confederation Helvetica.
Switzerland is a confederation of even smaller states, which are 26 cantons. Known for its neutrality, Switzerland has been neutral since 1815. It took roughly 600 years for the world to learn the hard lesson that you never, ever, ever want to mess with the Swiss.
There are four official languages in Switzerland: German, French, Italian, and Romance. So it has it all: hard-working Germans, who keep it running; sophisticated French, who enjoy life; fashionable Italians, who dress up; and simply really cool Romans, who no one ever remembers. In 1291, the people of Jüri-Schwitzen-Unterwalden wanted to be free.
I mean, who doesn’t? They signed a contract to work together, and that was called the Eternal Alliance, and they meant it. Normally, in history, eternal or anything of that nature means in the next few hundred years. In this case, it was eternal.
In 1315, the Eternal Alliance showed they meant business. They fought the Habsburgs in many battles, winning them all. Long story short, the world figured out that the Swiss are great fighters.
Hence, it’s better not to mess with them. Now we’re finally moving on to the top 10 shocking facts about Switzerland.
Not just any Democracy
Not just any democracy, but a direct democracy, is used in Switzerland. It’s the most democratic of all the democracies out there. Though ancient Greeks were accredited with the concept of democracy, rightfully so. Thank you, Greeks. After the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291, the Swiss put the principles of direct democracy into action at the time, mind you, when monarchies ruled pretty much everywhere across Europe and beyond.
Direct democracy means that people make most of the major decisions by themselves. These principles are strong to this day. Popular initiatives and referendums are still an integral part of political life in Switzerland and an object of eternal fascination and occasional envy from abroad.
Switzerland is ready to blow
Literally. All major entry points to Switzerland, be it tunnels, bridges, roads, you name it, are wired to explode at the very first sign of a foreign invasion. Around 3,000 bridges, roads, and railway lines around the Swiss border are ready to blow at a moment’s notice.
I told you, don’t mess with the Swiss. It may seem paranoid, but seriously, being surrounded by fairly temperamental countries in the history of the 20th century, you can’t blame the Swiss for being prepared. And that’s not even all.
In the case of a nuclear apocalypse, probably the best place to be is Switzerland. Switzerland has enough nuclear shelters to accommodate the entire Swiss population. The next fact is a sad one.
I’m not even going to try to make it amusing, because it isn’t.
If you are ready to go…
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, and there is such an unprecedented thing as suicide tourism.
According to Swiss law, anyone who is in a sound mind and, for a certain period of time, has consistently voiced a desire to end their life can call for assisted voluntary death, or AVD. This led to an influx of people, so-called suicide tourists, who came to Switzerland with the sole purpose of ending their lives. And there’s even a price associated with it.
It’s over 10,000 Swiss francs. That would be the total cost. And now, back to life.
Impressive Swiss Stats
The longest, the highest, the biggest, and the worst stuff in Switzerland.
Switzerland is home to the world’s longest staircase. The staircase has over 11,000 steps and a height of 1,669 meters, which makes it the longest in the world. It’s not open to the public.
You can’t really climb it, at least not anytime you want, but you can sweat by looking at it. Or you can even join a public run that is organized here once a year. Europe’s highest railway station is also here on top of Jungfraujoch at 3,454 meters.
And finally, the longest passenger train is also here, comprising 100 carriages with a total length of almost 2,000 meters that travel in southeast Switzerland on Saturdays.
Swiss know how to live…
Swiss may come across as an awfully serious bunch of watchmakers, bankers, and dairy farmers, but the Swiss know a thing or two about the good times. Swiss drink a lot of wine, and I mean a lot.
They love the stuff. They’re the fourth-largest in the world for annual wine consumption, producing about 1 million hectoliters of wine per year and drinking it pretty much themselves. They export it tiny—I would even say negligible—percent abroad, so if you want to try the good stuff, the Swiss stuff, you’d better come here.
All of that is accompanied by over 700 varieties of cheese that are produced in Switzerland, from mild to mature to soft to extra hot. There’s something to tickle at every play. The Swiss eat over 11 kilograms of chocolate per year, making them the leading consumer of chocolate in the world.
Did you know that until the 19th century, chocolate was sold in pharmacies as medicine? People found it revitalizing and stimulating. I’m with them. And finally, do you want to buy a souvenir from Switzerland, thinking of chocolate? Want to go for something extraordinary? Swiss got you covered.
The most expensive chocolate in the world can be purchased in Switzerland, and it goes for over 600 Swiss francs per piece.
Swiss gifts to the world
Swiss gifts to the world are plentiful.
In 2018, Switzerland ranked first for eight consecutive years as the most innovative country in the world, according to the Global Innovative Index. Yes, there is such a thing. Switzerland is also a Nobel Prize machine.
The country has produced 28 Nobel laureates. The Swiss also gave us LSD, muesli, a computer mouse, and aluminum foil, to name a few. Swiss army knives—this versatile tool orbits the earth.
It is loved throughout the world, especially by NASA. NASA sends them into space because they find it an indispensable tool, even in space. And surprisingly enough, Velcro.
The inventor George de Mistral came up with the idea of hunting in the Jura mountains in Switzerland sometime in the 1940s. He was inspired by those tiny seeds that get hooked on everything from shoes to dogs to fur to beyond. That’s what inspired him to create Velcro.
Enjoy the new muesli that came from Switzerland too. And finally, the Swiss gave the world the trip. LSD was first made by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman, who took his own trip in 1943 while conducting tests for migraine cures.
I’m pretty sure that migraine at least did go away. LSD was first synthesized earlier in 1938 when Albert accidentally ingested an unknown quantity of the chemical. And he was like, okay, this stuff works.
Do you believe this? Do you believe scientists? They’re a truly interesting bunch. Artificial sweeteners, for example, were discovered when a researcher licked his hand and realized that they were sweet. And like most of the discoveries made that way, they walk around the lab licking, trying, and ingesting stuff indiscriminately, and then they’re realizing, Okay, this stuff works or it doesn’t.
It seems like being a scientist is a dangerous job.
Swiss live longer ( Much, much longer)
Is it the wine that’s the secret to long lives in Switzerland? Or cheese? Or wine and cheese? A combination of wine, cheese, and chocolate. Remember when it was sold in the drugstores? I don’t know. But Switzerland has the second highest life expectancy of all countries in the world, second only to Japan with an average lifespan of 83.
Switzerland also has the oldest population in Europe, with the highest number of people aged over 100. There are several theories trying to discover the secret of Swiss longevity, including an active lifestyle, clean air, an excellent healthcare system, and a stunning landscape. Suggest your own theories.
Do you know why Swiss people live longer?
Swiss Nature is… One of the Interesting Facts about Switzerland
Also known as a top-secret, is that Swiss nature is photoshopped. Seriously, when you look at it, it looks photoshopped. No matter how many times I look at it, I always feel like it’s been photoshopped.
It’s photoshopped. I don’t know how they do it. They do well, but it is photoshopped.
Don’t believe me? Come see for yourself. Switzerland is home to amazing landscapes. I don’t think any other country can boast such a ratio of beauty to kilometers.
There’s a lot of beauty, but very, very little traveling is required to see it. It’s home to over 7,000 pristine lakes and hundreds of mountains. It is stunning.
Switzerland, when it comes to nature, is so beautiful that you can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel real. It is photoshopped.
Do not mess with the Swiss
You’ve probably heard that Switzerland was neutral during World War II, but actually, its neutrality goes way back centuries after a continental complex. European powers sort of decided that it was best to keep Switzerland out of it and keep it as a neutral buffer.
Swiss fighters were so good that those who had Swiss fighters in their army would be the winning army. So eventually, Europe was actually using Swiss mercenaries in their fights. For most of its history, Switzerland was not actively participating in the European wars.
It was providing for the soldiers because they were that good.
All is relative except
All are relative, but this one isn’t. Although German by birth, Albert Einstein, while living in the Swiss capital Bern, developed the world-famous equation E equals MC squared.
In fact, the physicist spent many years living in Switzerland, at one point in time being a lecturer at the nearby University of Bern.
There’s even a small museum in the place where Albert Einstein used to live in Bern. And that would be all that I wanted to share with you today about magnificent Switzerland.
Thank you so much for joining. It was a pleasure to share with you these facts. I hope you found them interesting.
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