Cartography of Switzerland

Switzerland has had its current boundaries since 1815, but maps of the Old Swiss Confederacy were drawn since the 16th century.

The first topographical survey on a federal level began in 1809, resulting in the Topographic Map of Switzerland (German: Topographische Karte der Schweiz) or Dufour Map (German: Dufourkarte; French: Carte Dufour).

From 1901, the Topographical Survey of Switzerland is an independent division within the military, introducing the Swiss coordinate system in 1903.

The first systematic geographical description of Switzerland is the Superioris Germaniae Confoederationis descriptio by Albert von Bonstetten (1479).

[1] The oldest map Old Swiss Confederacy is the one by Konrad Türst (d. 1503), physician in Zürich from 1489, made during 1495–1497.

Trüst's map shows most of the territory of modern Switzerland (but excluding Basel and Geneva).

The first printed map of Switzerland is Tabula Nova Heremi Helvetiorum, published in the 1513 Strasbourg edition of Ptolemy.

[2] Numerous maps followed in the 16th century, notably those by Aegidius Tschudi (1538, 1560), Johannes Stumpf (1548), Sebastian Münster (c. 1550) and Abraham Ortelius (1570).

Completed in 1667, the map showed the territory in shaded relief in hitherto unseen quality and detail, but because the map was classified as a military secret by the Zürich authorities, Gyger's work had limited influence on contemporary cartographers.

[6] In 1809, still under the Napoleonic Act of Mediation, the first topographical surveys of Switzerland took place on a confederate, military level.

Measurements in the alpine region started in the period of Restauration, in 1825, with triangulations by Antoine-Joseph Buchwalder.

This bureau publishes its first map the same year, the Carte topographique du Canton de Genève.

In 1863, the SAC published a 1:50.000 map of the region Tödi, based on unpublished survey material.

In 1868, a Federal Act was passed to enforce the continuation of the initial topographic surveys, as well as the publication of the results.

In 1878, a 1:1.000.000 map was published, and the next year, the height of the Pierre du Niton was measured to be 376.86 metres.

The 1:100.000 series started with 41 Col du Pillon (1954), and finished with 47 Monte Rosa in 1965.

With the publication of the latter map, the work required by the Federal Act of 1935 was finally finished.