Schwyz (redirected from Schwyz, Switzerland)

Schwyz (shvēts), canton (1993 pop. 116,100), 351 sq mi (909 sq km), central Switzerland, one of the Four Forest Cantons. Bordering on the Lake of Zürich in the north and the Lake of Lucerne in the southwest, Schwyz is a mountainous and forested region, with meadows supporting livestock and orchards in the valleys. Cotton and silk textiles and wood furniture are manufactured, and there are large hydroelectric plants in the north. The population is German-speaking and Roman Catholic. In the early 13th cent. the rights to Schwyz passed to the counts of Hapsburg, but in 1240 Emperor Frederick II granted Schwyz a charter making it immediately subject to the Holy Roman Empire. The charter was revoked in 1274 by Rudolf I of Hapsburg, and in 1291 Schwyz concluded with Uri and Unterwalden the pact which became the basis of Swiss liberty. (The name Switzerland derives from Schwyz.) The canton rejected the Reformation and in 1845 joined the Catholic Sonderbund. Its capital,

Schwyz (1993 pop. 13,000), one of the oldest towns in Switzerland, is a summer resort. The Swiss federal archives there contain the original pact of 1291. The town has a 16th-century town hall with historic paintings, several baroque churches, and numerous patrician houses (17th–18th cent.).

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Schwyz

1. a canton of central Switzerland: played an important part in the formation of the Swiss confederation, to which it gave its name. Capital: Schwyz. Pop.: 133 300 (2002 est.). Area: 908 sq. km (351 sq. miles)

2. a town in E central Switzerland, capital of Schwyz canton: tourism. Pop.: 13 802 (2000)

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Schwyz 

a canton in Switzerland. Area, 908 sq km. Population, 92,000 (1970). The capital is the city of Schwyz.

Schwyz is first mentioned in written sources as a community of free peasants in 972. It later became dependent on the Hapsburgs. In its struggle against the Austrian dynasty, Schwyz con cluded in 1291 a treaty of perpetual alliance with the other forest cantons of Uri and Unterwalden, thus forming the nucleus of the Swiss state. One of the economically backward cantons, Schwyz opposed the Protestant cantons and remained Catholic during the Reformation in the 16th century. As part of the Helvetian Republic from 1798 to 1803, it resisted centralization. During the 1830’s and 1840’s, Schwyz was a member of the League of Sarnen andtheSonderbund.