Waldstätte

Waldstätte (German: [ˈvaltʃtɛtə], "forested sites;" Latin: civitates silvestres) is a term which has been used since the early thirteenth century to refer to the Stätte (singular: Statt, "sites"), or later Ort (plural: Orte, "place") or Stand (plural: Stände, "estate") of the early confederate allies of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden in today's Central Switzerland.

[3] The Middle High German terms Waldstette or Stette (in the sense of "forested site/settlement") are also used alongside Stett (modern Stadt, or "town, city", in the sense of a powerful, possibly protected settlement with special rights) and Lender (modern Länder, in the sense of rural countrysides) in reference to the individual confederate allies into the first half of 15th century and became gradually replaced by the term Ort ("point; lieu") or Stand ("state"), which stayed prominent in German-speaking Switzerland until the Helvetic Republic; the term canton (in German: Kanton), in origin a Romance translation of German Ort, was unknown for the German-speaking allies until around 1650.

[citation needed] The inclusion of Lucerne as a "fourth" Waldstätte is first mentioned in an addition dated to the 1450s in the Silver Book of Egloff Etterlin.

In the protocols of the Swiss Diet in the second half of the 15th century, under the presidency of Lucerne, the term vier waltstette sees frequent use.

Albrecht von Bonstetten in his Superioris Germaniae Confoederationis descriptio (1479) suggests that the term vier Waldstett (Latinized quatuor Loca Silvarum) was in common use.