Zurich, Switzerland - Switzerland is home to a remarkable number of enclaves and exclaves. The mountainous territory has left various peoples stranded from their cultural mainland and these folk are, by nature, independently minded and unwilling to assimilate. Switzerland, to its credit, has accommodated the nationalist and sub-nationalist predilections of these groups by creating various bizarre geographic carve-outs for them. Below are some examples.
Büsingen am Hochrhein
Büsingen am Hochrhein (population: 1,450) is a German town surrounded entirely by Switzerland. According to Wikipedia, it has, since the early 19th century, been separated from the rest of Germany by the Swiss village of Dörflingen - at its shortest, a distance of approximately 680 meters.
Going back several centuries, the town was historically part of Austria. Austria stubbornly held onto it even after selling the nearby villages of Dörflingen and Ramsen to Zurich in 1770.
After the congress of Vienna in 1815, the town was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Baden (soon to be part of greater Germany), who has persisted in the Austrian tradition of stubbornly holding onto the town. In 1919, following World War I, the town voted overwhelming (96% in favor) to join Switzerland, but the deal fell apart when the Swiss were unable to adequately compensate Germany with another piece of territory. In 1956, a second attempt at negotiations ended with the Germans proposing that rather than transfer the town to Switzerland, the Swiss instead transfer them territory for a land corridor to the town. The Germans had at that time established something of a bad reputation for forcibly annexing territory, and the Swiss politely declined.
Which brings us to the present day and the peculiarities of having a German town in Switzerland. Some highlights:
- Currency. Büsingen is the only German town which uses primarily Swiss francs, rather than the euro.
- Law Enforcement. The Swiss police may chase badies into Büsingen, so long as there are no more than 10 officers in pursuit (the maximum number of Swiss officers allowed in Büsingen). The Germans must limit their police force to no more than 3 officers per 100 inhabitants, and must use special routes on their way to and from Büsingen.
- Education. Parents may choose either a Swiss or German secondary school.
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| Map of Büsingen and surrounding (Swiss) territory1 |
Campione d'Italia
Campione d'Italia (population: 1,958) is, as the name suggests, an Italian town in Switzerland. A long, long time ago, ownership of the town was transferred from a medieval lord to the archbishopric of Milan, who then cosigned it to the Milanese abbey of Sant’Ambrogio. In 1521, Pope Julius gave Ticino (the territory surrounding Campione d'Italia) to the Swiss as thanks for fighting in the wars of the holy league, but the the abbey refused to also transfer the the town and thus established it as an exclave.
There were various attempts at unification over the years, some initiated by the Swiss, and some by the Campionesi. For one reason or another, these attempts foundered.
In the 1930s, Mussolini felt it was urgently important to assert the small town's Italianess, and so he constructed an ornamental arch at the entrance to the town and added "d'Italia" to what had formerly been simply "Campione," to avoid any potential confusion. Despite this, the town did not adopt the unwavering nationalistic fervor that Il Duce had intended and instead became a a sanctuary for Italian political refugees and a staging ground for OSS operations in Italy.
The Casinò di Campione was founded in 1917 by the Italian government with the intention of spying on foreign diplomats. It seems to have been more useful as a source of revenue, as it enabling the residents of Campione d'Italia to live tax-free. That is, until the casino went bankrupt in 2018, threatening the economic collapse the entire town. An agreement was reached this year to settle the casino's debts.
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| Map of Campione d'Italia and surrounding (Swiss) territory2 |
Switzerland is also home to several sub-national enclaves/exclaves. Cantons have splintered over the years so that they are not entirely contiguous. Switzerland is a mountainous with lost of dispersed and isolated communities. Over the years, the various political and religious currents that swept through the country left pockets untouched and those unaffected groups tended to maintain closer cultural or political affiliations with communities that were not necessarily their neighbors. One can easily imagine a Lutheran minister losing some steam somewhere in the middle of Switzerland and deciding it just wasn't it worth it to bring the new good word to the little village over the next mountain pass ("Oh, the heck with it!").
Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden
The Appenzells are a curious case in Switzerland. To begin with, the two Cantons are entirely surrounded by the Canton of St. Gallen. Appenzell was formerly a single canton that organized themselves into a political unit in 14th century due to conflicts over grazing rights, taxes and tithes. They joined the Swiss confederation as an "associate member" in 1411 and as a full member in 1513. The surrounding territories that now collectively St. Gallen muddled along in a more disorganized fashion with varying ties to the Swiss confederation until Napoleon established them as a single Canton in 1803.
Anyway, that's how we got an island of Appenzell inside St. Gallen. The reformation split the canton into two pieces, with the Ausserrhoden (loosely, "outer clearing") converting to Protestantism while Innerrhoden (loosely, "inner clearing") remained Catholic. The split was not - cartographically speaking - clean: Appenzell Innerrhoden is not a contiguous Canton, instead it has two splinter exclaves to the east.
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| Appenzell Ausserrhoden4 |
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| Appenzell Innerrhoden5 |
Obwalden
Starting in the late 13th century, Unterwalden (loosely, "under forest") joined the nascent Swiss confederation. Unterwalden was a mash up of two neighboring valleys, Obwalden (loosely, "of the forest") and Nidwalden (loosely, "not of the forest"). Over the course of the next few centuries, the degree of independence/unity varied until 1803 when Napoleon (him again) established Obwalden as its own independent canton. Up to this time, Obwalden was understood more or less as a contiguous territory (insofar as I understand), even if it was at times a part of greater Unterwalden. But as the Swiss emerged from the Napoleonic period, the Nidwalder people resisted the new Swiss constitution, and the religious municipality of Engelberg, which nowhere connected to Obwalden, successfully petitioned to join Obwalden. Thus, we have the modern Obwalden, a big blob to the west and a completely separate, littler blob to the east.
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| Obwalden with Engelberg to the East6 |
Other Cantonal Enclave/Exclave Weirdness
The examples above should hopefully paint a picture of how the waters got muddied over the centuries due to various political and religious conflict. But these are far from the only examples. Below is a list of Cantonal-level enclaves and exclaves in Switzerland that I didn't have time to thoroughly research. Note this list does not include the many municipal enclaves and exclaves, which are non-contiguous geographical fragments of cities, which are also a thing here. Anyway, Switzerland makes American gerrymandering look like child's play.
- Aargau has a small enclave, the Fahr Convent, inside the canton of Zurich
- Bern has two enclaves:
- Villars-les-Moines is completely landlocked in the canton of Friborg
- Clavaleyres is surrounded by the cantons of Friborg and Vaud. However, the process of transferring the Municipality of Clavaleyres from the canton of Berne to the canton of Friborg is underway, which will allow this municipality to merge with that of Murten.
- Fribourg has four municipalities that are not connected to the larger cantonal territory
- Geneva has two exclaves in Vaud, both of which collectively form the community of Céligny
- Lucerne has three exclaves:
- Greppen, Weggis and Vitznau is separated by Lake Lucerne and the Canton of Schwyz
- A fragement of the municipality of Lucerne is enclosed between the south shore of Lake Lucerne and the Canton of Nidwalden
- Meierskappel is separated by the Cantons of Schwyz and Zug
- St. Gallen has a municipality, Raach in the Canton of Thurgau
- Schaffhausen has two exclaves:
- The municipalities of Buchberg and Rüdlingen are located between the canton of Zurich and Germany
- The municipalities of Buch, Hemishofen, Ramsen and Stein am Rhein are located between the canton of Thurgau and Germany
- Solothurn has three exclaves:
- The municipalities of Bättwil, Hofstetten-Flüh, Metzerlen-Mariastein, Rodersdorf and Witterswil is an exclave separated by the Canton of Basel
- Separately, the municipality of Kleinlützel is also separated by the Canton of Basel
- Steinhof is landlocked in the canton of Bern
- Thurgau's municipality of Horn is landlocked between the Canton of St. Gallen and Lake Constance
- Vaud has eleven municipalities separated from the rest of the Canton by the Canton of Fribourg and Lake Neuchâtel
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| Canton of Fribourg7 |
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| Canton of Schaffhausen8 |
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| Canton of Solothurn9 |
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| Canton of Geneva3 |
Sources
1 By Julian Fleischer aka Warhog (German original); translated by xensyria, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31811102
2 By Tschubby - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=196561
3 Von GastelEtzwane - Image:Carte_Commune_Céligny.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3101544
4 CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110441
5 CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=935073
6 By Abaddon1337 - Own work using file:Karte Kanton Obwalden 2010.png by Tschubby, CC BY-
SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18242418
7 Par Tschubby — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85099361
8 Tschubby / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
9 By Tschubby - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8295796
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