Little Switzerland (landscape)
Encyclopedia
A little Switzerland or Schweiz is a landscape
, often of wooded hills. This Romantic
aesthetic term is not a geographic category, but was widely used in the 19th century to connote dramatic natural scenic features that would be of interest to tourists. Since it was ambiguous from the very beginning, it was flexibly used in travel writing to imply that a landscape had some features, though on a much smaller scale, which might remind a visitor of Switzerland
.
The original generic term was applied to dozens of locations in Europe, the bulk of them German speaking, as well as to other parts of the world, to direct attention to rock outcrops that stand out, usually amid steep forest. The original, 18th-century comparison was usually with the fissured crags of the Jura Mountains
on the Franco-Swiss border which hardly rise higher than 1700 metres.
Histories of Saxon Switzerland
(Sächsische Schweiz) in Saxony, Germany assert that the landscape description schweiz arose there at the end of the 18th century. Schweiz is the German-language name of Switzerland. The term was used both alone and with the prefix "little", for example in the title of an 1820 German book-length poem, Die kleine Schweiz by Jakob Reiselsberger, which praised the rocky scenery of a part of Franconia in Germany known thereafter as the Franconian Switzerland
(Fränkische Schweiz).
The term was already colloquial by this time in English: in 1823 a correspondent asserted in The Gentleman's Magazine
that a steep area by the road outside Petersfield
in southern England was a little Switzerland. . The aesthetic term, to describe picturesque exposed rock and steepness rather than altitude, was also in common use in other European languages, including the French term "Suisse". Rocks and wild landscapes were a favoured theme in Romantic
painting.
The many English places praised in 19th century promotional literature as "little Switzerland" include Church Stretton
, Whitfield
and the coastal area around the North Devon
twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth
. Chalet-style buildings were sometimes erected to emphasize little Switzerland pretensions, for example at Matlock Bath
, which (unusual for England) also features a cable car
.
Universal Geography, which had originally been written in French 1803-1807:
Describing the Atlantic island of St Helena in A New Voyage Round the World 1823-1826, Otto von Kotzebue
and Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz were translated into English as writing:
In the United States, the raw White Mountains
of New Hampshire, which were soon to be one of the definitive subjects of American Romantic painting
, were termed a little Switzerland by travel writer Henry Tudor as early as 1832.
In the later 19th century, authors and tourism promoters would praise picture-postcard summer scenery of woods and low hills reflected in blue lakes as a little Switzerland or schweiz. Whereas the earlier use had implied a landscape of dangers, this was a term for beauty.
This usage, reflected today in the official geographical terms for the Holstein Switzerland (Holsteinische Schweiz) and Mecklenburg Switzerland
(Mecklenburgische Schweiz) in Germany, where there are neither mountains nor outcrops, is difficult to account for, but may refer to prestigious Swiss lakeside tourist destinations such as Zurich, Lucerne or Interlaken
or to Lakes Geneva and Constance.
In 1992, the Swiss Tourism Federation counted http://www.fraenkische-schweiz.com/info/hintergrund/name_fs_entstehung.htm more than 190 places round the world that had at least for some period been named after Switzerland, either because of a fancied scenic resemblance, in jest or referring to a banking haven, political neutrality or habitation by Swiss emigrants. No fewer than 67 places in neighbouring Germany were said by the Federation to have adopted little Switzerland names.
While the byname has fallen out of fashion in some places, it persists as the official geographical name for several administrative regions and national parks including (with dates of legal designation):
Business promotion regions using the name without legally defined boundaries include:
Notable privately developed properties known by the name include:
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
, often of wooded hills. This Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
aesthetic term is not a geographic category, but was widely used in the 19th century to connote dramatic natural scenic features that would be of interest to tourists. Since it was ambiguous from the very beginning, it was flexibly used in travel writing to imply that a landscape had some features, though on a much smaller scale, which might remind a visitor of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Rock outcrops
Jura mountains
The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...
on the Franco-Swiss border which hardly rise higher than 1700 metres.
Histories of Saxon Switzerland
Saxon Switzerland
Saxon Switzerland is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe Sandstone Mountains....
(Sächsische Schweiz) in Saxony, Germany assert that the landscape description schweiz arose there at the end of the 18th century. Schweiz is the German-language name of Switzerland. The term was used both alone and with the prefix "little", for example in the title of an 1820 German book-length poem, Die kleine Schweiz by Jakob Reiselsberger, which praised the rocky scenery of a part of Franconia in Germany known thereafter as the Franconian Switzerland
Franconian Switzerland
The Little Switzerland is an upland in Upper Franconia, northern Bavaria and a popular tourist retreat. Located between the Pegnitz River in the east and the south, the Regnitz River in the west and the Main River in the north, its relief reaches 600 metres in height.The Franconian Switzerland is...
(Fränkische Schweiz).
The term was already colloquial by this time in English: in 1823 a correspondent asserted in The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term "magazine" for a periodical...
that a steep area by the road outside Petersfield
Petersfield, Hampshire
Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth and London. The town is situated on the...
in southern England was a little Switzerland. . The aesthetic term, to describe picturesque exposed rock and steepness rather than altitude, was also in common use in other European languages, including the French term "Suisse". Rocks and wild landscapes were a favoured theme in Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
painting.
The many English places praised in 19th century promotional literature as "little Switzerland" include Church Stretton
Church Stretton
Church Stretton is a small town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The population of the town was recorded as 2,789 in 2001, whilst the population of the wider parish was recorded as 4,186...
, Whitfield
Whitfield, Northumberland
Whitfield is a village in the county of Northumberland, England about southwest of Hexham. It has a farming community and is set against beautiful scenic background; sometimes it has been called Little Switzerland....
and the coastal area around the North Devon
North Devon
North Devon is the northern part of the English county of Devon. It is also the name of a local government district in Devon. Its council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth...
twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth
Lynmouth
Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the north edge of Exmoor.The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn and East Lyn rivers, in a gorge below Lynton, to which it is connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway....
. Chalet-style buildings were sometimes erected to emphasize little Switzerland pretensions, for example at Matlock Bath
Matlock Bath railway station
Matlock Bath railway station is a railway station owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Trains Train operating company . It is located in the village of Matlock Bath in Derbyshire, England...
, which (unusual for England) also features a cable car
Cable car
A cable car is any of a variety of transportation systems relying on cables to pull vehicles along or lower them at a steady rate, or a vehicle on these systems.-Aerial lift:Aerial lifts where the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable:...
.
Mountains
From the beginning, the term was often understood as a comparison to the snow-capped Alps rather than to the Jura. The following passage, describing Wales, appears in an 1831 English-language edition of Malte-Brun'sConrad Malte-Brun
Conrad Malte-Brun , born Malthe Conrad Bruun, was a Danish-French geographer and journalist. His second son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, was also a geographer.-Biography:...
Universal Geography, which had originally been written in French 1803-1807:
Describing the Atlantic island of St Helena in A New Voyage Round the World 1823-1826, Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....
and Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz were translated into English as writing:
In the United States, the raw White Mountains
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...
of New Hampshire, which were soon to be one of the definitive subjects of American Romantic painting
White Mountain art
White Mountain art is the body of work created during the 19th century by over four hundred artists who painted landscape scenes of the White Mountains of New Hampshire in order to promote the region and, consequently, sell their works of art....
, were termed a little Switzerland by travel writer Henry Tudor as early as 1832.
Lakelands
This usage, reflected today in the official geographical terms for the Holstein Switzerland (Holsteinische Schweiz) and Mecklenburg Switzerland
Mecklenburgische Schweiz
Mecklenburgische Schweiz is an Amt in the district of Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The seat of the Amt is in Teterow, itself not part of the Amt.The Amt Mecklenburgische Schweiz consists of the following municipalities:...
(Mecklenburgische Schweiz) in Germany, where there are neither mountains nor outcrops, is difficult to account for, but may refer to prestigious Swiss lakeside tourist destinations such as Zurich, Lucerne or Interlaken
Interlaken
Interlaken is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, a well-known tourist destination in the Bernese Oberland.-History:...
or to Lakes Geneva and Constance.
Official names
The term has often appeared anachronistic since travel to Switzerland became affordable. By the 21st century, it was common for observers to express puzzlement that the "little Switzerland" label applied at all to regions such as the Suisse Normande, or to the Holstein Switzerland where the flat hilltops are no more than 150 metres above the lake surfaces.In 1992, the Swiss Tourism Federation counted http://www.fraenkische-schweiz.com/info/hintergrund/name_fs_entstehung.htm more than 190 places round the world that had at least for some period been named after Switzerland, either because of a fancied scenic resemblance, in jest or referring to a banking haven, political neutrality or habitation by Swiss emigrants. No fewer than 67 places in neighbouring Germany were said by the Federation to have adopted little Switzerland names.
While the byname has fallen out of fashion in some places, it persists as the official geographical name for several administrative regions and national parks including (with dates of legal designation):
- Bohemian Switzerland (České Švýcarsko, nature park, Czech Republic, legislation with effect 2000 http://www.ceskesvycarsko.cz/bohemian-switzerland-national-park/)
- Franconian SwitzerlandFranconian SwitzerlandThe Little Switzerland is an upland in Upper Franconia, northern Bavaria and a popular tourist retreat. Located between the Pegnitz River in the east and the south, the Regnitz River in the west and the Main River in the north, its relief reaches 600 metres in height.The Franconian Switzerland is...
(tourism region, Germany, designated 1968 http://www.fsvf.de/?id=58) - Holstein Switzerland (nature parkHolstein Switzerland Nature ParkThe Holstein Switzerland Nature Park is a German federal nature park in the Holstein Switzerland region of Schleswig-Holstein.In 1986 an association called the Naturpark Holsteinische Schweiz was founded...
, Germany, formed by association 1986) - Mark Switzerland (Märkische Schweiz, nature park, Germany, by decree 1990 http://www.grossschutzgebiete.brandenburg.de/np_ms/gebiete_01.html)
- Mecklenburg SwitzerlandMecklenburgische SchweizMecklenburgische Schweiz is an Amt in the district of Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The seat of the Amt is in Teterow, itself not part of the Amt.The Amt Mecklenburgische Schweiz consists of the following municipalities:...
(nature park, Germany, designated 1997 http://www.naturpark-mecklenburgische-schweiz.de/) - Rüdigsdorf SwitzerlandRüdigsdorf SwitzerlandRüdigsdorf Switzerland is a range of hills up to near the village of Rüdigsdorf in the district of Nordhausen in the German state of Thuringia....
(hill range and karst landscape in the southern HarzHarzThe Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
, most of which is a nature reserve) - Saxon SwitzerlandSaxon SwitzerlandSaxon Switzerland is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe Sandstone Mountains....
(nature park, Germany, designated 1990 http://www.nationalpark-saechsische-schweiz.de/red1/sachsens-nationalpark/kurzportrait/, local government area, incorporated 1994 into :de:Landkreis Sächsische Schweiz)
Business promotion regions using the name without legally defined boundaries include:
- Suisse Normande (upland region of CalvadosCalvadosThe French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...
, France) - Little Switzerland (Luxembourg)Little Switzerland (Luxembourg)Little Switzerland is a nickname for a region in the east of Luxembourg, bestowed upon the region on account of its reputed geographic similarities to Switzerland. It is roughly contiguous with the canton of Echternach...
(dolomite formations near Echternach, Luxembourg http://www.berdorf.lu/)
Notable privately developed properties known by the name include:
- Little Switzerland, North CarolinaLittle Switzerland, North CarolinaLittle Switzerland is an unincorporated community in McDowell and Mitchell counties of North Carolina, United States. It is located along NC 226A off the Blue Ridge Parkway, directly north of Marion, North Carolina and south of Spruce Pine....
(resort development on hilltop in North Carolina, USA, from 1909 http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/501546.html) - Little Switzerland (Wisconsin)Little Switzerland (Wisconsin)Little Switzerland was a ski resort in Slinger, Wisconsin with 15 runs, 5 chairlifts and 2 rope tows, featuring a front side and a back side to the hill, with different attractions on each side, and a Bavarian Bar Room at the bottom of the hill, with snack bar and kitchen service...
(a ski resort from 1941 onwards)