was built in 1421-1573, and restored in 1850, with a richly sculptured portal, some good stained glass of the fifteenth century, and a famous organ. From the Terrace in the rear of the Cathedral, the snowy peaks of the Bernese Alps are seen in a glorious panorama.
Berne, since 1849 the capital of Switzerland, sixty-eight miles by rail southwest of Basel, is situated on a lofty sandstone promontory formed by the winding Aar, which surrounds it on three sides. It is one of the best and most regularly built towns in Europe, as it is the finest in Switzerland. The houses are massive structures of freestone, resting upon shop-lined arcades. Rills of water flow through the streets. The view of the Alpine peaks from the city is magnificent.
The principal public buildings are a Gothic cathedral, the magnificent Federal Council Hall, the mint, the hospital, and the university. Berne has an interesting museum, and a valuable public library of fifty thousand volumes.
It was founded in 1191, was made a free imperial city in 1218, under Frederick II.; and between 1288 and 1339 successfully resisted the attacks of Rudolf of Hapsburg, Albert, his son, and Louis of Bavaria. The “Disputation of Berne” between Catholics and Reformers in 1528 prepared the way for the acceptance of the reformed doctrine.
On account of the traditionary derivation of its name (Swabian bern, “a bear”), bears are maintained in a public bear-pit.
History.—The original inhabitants of Switzerland were the Celtic Helvetii, and the Rhætii of doubtful affinity. Both were conquered by Julius Cæsar and the generals of Augustus, and Romanized. Overrun by the Burgundians in the west, and their Germanic kinsmen the Alemannians in the east, Helvetia became subject to the Frankish kings and were christianized in the seventh century.
Most of the country was subsequently part of the Holy Roman Empire; and in 1273 a Swiss noble, Rudolf of Hapsburg in Aargau, became German emperor. Soon after his death (in 1291) the inhabitants of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden formed a league to defend their common interests, and in 1315 crushed an Austrian army at Morgarten. In 1332 Luzerne joined the alliance, and in 1353, Berne, Zürich, Glarus, and Zug. The Austrians were again routed in Sempach in 1386, and in 1388 at Näfels.
The Swiss next had a fierce but triumphant struggle with Charles the Bold of Burgundy, whom they routed at Grandson and Morat in 1476, and finally at Nancy (where Charles was slain) in 1477.
When the Reformation began there were thirteen cantons, and the cantons took opposite sides from the beginning, not without serious turmoil and bloodshed. The treaty of Westphalia in 1648 recognized Switzerland as an independent state. Some of the cantons were strictly aristocratic and some highly democratic, and there was much discontent long before the French Revolution, when, in 1798, between civil strife and French armies, the old republic (or rather alliance) came to an end.