Monday 27 January 2014

Maps on Monday - Switzerland




Three postcards showing the map of Switzerland.  The first one dates from 1906 and was posted in Zurich, the second one has a Luzern postmark, dated 1909, while the third is modern and unposted.  The vintage cards have the coats of arms of the cantons embossed on the card.

The maps remain remarkably similar over the years shown on these cards, unlike many European countries.  The cantons were once individual sovereign states now joined together in a confederacy.  The cantons have their own constitution, laws and government, and they don't all have the same official language.  There are four official languages in Switzerland as a whole: German, French, Italian and Romansh.

The CH abbreviation for Switzerland comes from the Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica.
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2 comments:

  1. Maps on Monday. What a great Idea. I have lots of map post cards. I am going to follow your lead and post = MAP MONDAY = Thanks for a clever way to introduce my map post cards. It will give reason to their post. Michael, from Miss You, Wish you were here. . . http://luvlinens.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good to meet someone else who likes map cards. :)

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Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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