Author: Maarten Koning

The Via Francigena in Switzerland

The origin of the Via Francigena which links Canterbury to Rome, crossing England, France, Switzerland and Italy, goes back to the old Roman road system when soldiers and merchants travelled from the South to the North of Europe and the other way around.

The Via Francigena goes through the cantons of Vaud and the Valais and crosses the Grand-Saint-Bernard pass. The Romans used this road when they were en route to conquer Britain in 43 AD.

The name of this ancient Roman road is from a much later date, however.

In 772, the Lombards (a kingdom in Italy, Ravenna was the capital)  threatened the pontifical states. Charlemagne, King of the Franks, saved the Pope. The road got the name Via Francigena, which means the ‘road which comes from France’.

The road became a Christian pilgrimage after the archbishop of Canterbury had travelled to Rome to receive the pallium from the Pope in 985. His itinerary was written down. The document is in the British Museum nowadays. It is a guide for pilgims ever since.

The cantons of Vaud and Valais belonged in these days to the Burgundian Kingdom (888-1032).

The Swiss cities are written down in their (vulgar) Latin names: Bourg-Saint-Pierre (Petrecastel), Orsières (Ursiores), Saint-Maurice (Sce Maurici), Aigle (Burbulei), Vevey (Vivaec), Lausanne (Losanna), Orbe (Urbe) and Yverdon (Antifern).

In 1994, the Council of Europe recognised the Via Francigena as a European Cultural Itinerary, and in 2001 the European Association of the Via Francigena was founded. (Source: A. M. Barelli, Le Chablais (Viterbo, 2014).

The Beginning of European Tourism

The Tourism and the healthcare industry in Switzerland began in the early 19th century. Before that time, most visitors were traders, politicians, pilgrims and above all (British upper class) men and a few women who travelled across Europe on their Grand Tour, passing through  Switzerland.

The Alps, lakes and mountainous landscapes also attracted the attention of poets and writers, increasing the awareness of  (British) citizens.

The political history and cantonal organisation without a monarchy or aristocracy also inspired thinkers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Edward Gibbon (1737-1794).

Alpinism started around 1800-1820, when the first Britons climbed mountains of more than 3 000 meters. In 1857, they founded the Alpine Club in London and the Swiss Alpine Club.

Around 1850, Swiss alpine villages began to market themselves as health resorts. Tourism was booming and mainly British visitors travelled in large numbers to Switzerland.

Mountain passes, coach services and the railway made the mountainous regions accessible to a broader public and Graubünden became a popular destination.

The Belle Époque Hotel Museum in Flims presents the heyday of tourism around 1900.

The museum shows many artefacts from this period, hotel rooms, and the touristic way of life of Lords, Ladies and other visitors (Source www.waldhaus-flims.ch).

The Exodus of the Huguenots

The organisation is an international project dealing with the exodus of  French Huguenots after 1685.

It is a long-distance  hiking trail, that follows the path of Huguenots to Germany and French-speaking Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685).

The route begins in Geneva, passing Coppet, Nyon, Morges, Romainmôtier, Yverdons-les-Bains and ends in Vaumarcus on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel.

Another path, Le Sentier du Lac, leads to Neuchâtel and to Neuveville, l’itinéraire bernois.

(Source and further information: www.via-huguenots-vd.ch).