Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy
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 common interests such as free trade and to ensure the peace along the important trade routes through the mountains.
The Hohenstaufen emperors had granted these valleys reichsfrei status in the early 13th century. As reichsfrei regions, the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden were under the direct authority of the emperor without any intermediate liege lords and thus were largely autonomous.
1550 illustration for the Sempacherbrief of 1393, one of the major alliance contracts of the Old Swiss Confederacy
The Devil's bridge was built in the 13th century to complete the road over the St. Gotthard Pass. The first stone bridge from the 16th century was damaged by war and destroyed by a flood in 1888. The image shows the second bridge built in 1826 and above it the 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.
The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland or the Swiss Confederacy, was a loose confederation of independent small states, initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland.
The forces of Zürich are defeated in the Second War of Kappel.
Federal Charter of 1291
Tagsatzung of 1531 in Baden (1790s drawing)
