Olive production in Switzerland

Retired legionaries from Julius Caesar's campaign in Gaul are said to have planted olive trees on the shores of Lake Como, which lies a few kilometres east of the current Swiss border.

[1] Olive oil production on Swiss territory is attested by the monk Ekkehard IV from St. Gallen around the year 1000.

He notably wrote: "Hunc olee fructum faciat lux, pax benedictum" ("This fruit of the olive tree gives light and blesses peace").

[2] In 1494, 1600 and 1709, frost destroyed almost all the olive groves,[1] perhaps a consequence of the Little Ice Age, which affected Switzerland and Europe at that time.

[4] Nevertheless, olive cultivation, along with mulberry, lemon and orange, is reported and described by travellers from northern Switzerland in the late 18th and early 19th century.

It can therefore be deduced that the southern slopes of Monte Brè, San Salvatore, Arbostora and various other locations, were still populated by vast olive groves at that time.

[1] In 2016, a farm in Brusio (Grisons) began to cultivate olive trees on restored terraces that probably date back to the 16th century.

The Flora Helvetica, the reference work for identifying flowering plants in Switzerland, describes the olive habitat: "Rocky slopes, bushes, cultivated and rarely wild in southern Ticino".