🇨🇭
Switzerland
Let's explore one of the world's most fascinating countries — packed with surprises, stories, and pen pal potential.
The Basics
3 Things That Will Blow Your Mind
Genuinely. You'll want to tell someone immediately.
Switzerland has four official languages and they change depending on where you are
If you travel from Geneva to Zurich to Lugano to a small valley in the far south-east of the country, you will pass through French-speaking Switzerland, German-speaking Switzerland, Italian-speaking Switzerland, and finally a tiny region where people speak Romansh, an ancient language descended from Latin that only about 35,000 people in the world still use.
The world's largest machine is buried under Switzerland
CERN's Large Hadron Collider is a circular tunnel 27 kilometres around, buried under Switzerland and France, built to smash tiny particles together at close to the speed of light so scientists can study what everything in the universe is made of. It is the most complex machine ever built by human beings and it sits under ordinary Swiss farmland.
Switzerland has enough underground bunkers for every single person in the country
Switzerland has been officially neutral in wars since 1815 but it did not stop worrying. The country built an extraordinary network of over 300,000 underground shelters, tunnels, and fortresses during the 20th century with enough space to shelter every Swiss citizen at the same time. Some old farmhouses have blast doors hidden inside them.
Famous For
Chocolate
A Swiss chemist named Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate in 1875 by figuring out how to mix cacao with condensed milk. Before that, chocolate was a dark and bitter drink. Switzerland turned it into the sweet solid thing the whole world now eats and Swiss chocolate is still considered the standard against which everything else is measured.
The Alps
The Swiss Alps cover about 60% of the country and include some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in Europe. Children in mountain towns sometimes ski to school. In summer the same slopes fill with hikers and wildflowers.
Watches
Switzerland has been making precision watches since the 1500s and Swiss watchmakers are still considered the best in the world. The phrase "Swiss made" on a watch is one of the most trusted quality labels in existence.
The Red Cross
The International Red Cross was founded in Geneva in 1863 by a Swiss businessman named Henry Dunant after he watched thousands of wounded soldiers die on a battlefield because nobody was there to help them. The Red Cross flag is the Swiss flag with the colours reversed and it is now one of the most recognised symbols on Earth.
Did You Know?
Swiss trains are so famously punctual that the Swiss railway company publishes data showing their average delay is well under a minute. When Swiss trains are late it is national news. Travellers from other countries sometimes check their watches against Swiss train arrivals because the trains are considered more reliable than most clocks.
Pen Pal Connection
A child in Switzerland might write to you about skiing in the Alps on a school trip where the mountain is visible from their classroom window, speaking French at home and German at school and switching to Italian when they visit their grandparents in a different part of the country, the chocolate from a local shop that tastes completely different from anything sold abroad, or the slightly strange feeling of living in a country that has not been in a war for over 200 years and has bunkers under the farmland just in case.