The Old Swiss Confederacy began as a late medieval alliance between the communities of the valleys in the Central Alps, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, to facilitate the management of commo
1550 illustration for the Sempacherbrief of 1393, one of the major alliance contracts of the Old Swiss Confederacy
The Devil's bridge, first built in the 13th century, completed the road over the St. Gotthard Pass. A stone bridge from the 1500s was damaged by war and later destroyed by a flood in 1888. This photo shows a second stone bridge, built in 1826, and above it a third bridge from 1958.
The Federal Charter of 1291
Illustration from the late fifteenth century of the Battle of Laupen. The confederate forces are on the right.
Battle of Morgarten
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The Battle of Morgarten took place on 15 November 1315, when troops of Schwyz, supported by their allies of Uri and Unterwalden, ambushed an Austrian army under the command of Leopold I, Duke of Austr
Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy
…army of knights against these peasants to subdue their insurrection, but the Austrian army of Frederick's brother Leopold I was utterly defeated in the Battle of Morgarten in 1315. The three cantons renewed their alliance in the pact of Brunnen, and Louis IV reconfirmed their Imperial immediacy. The Swiss chronicles of…
Illustration from the Tschachtlanchronik, 1470
Illustration from the Schweizer Chronik of Johannes Stumpf of 1547