Putting the art in cartography

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The oldest surviving complete map of Switzerland, dating from 1495-1497. As with many early maps, this one has south at the top. So Lake Constance is on the left, Lake Lucerne is in the middle and Lake Neuchâtel is bottom right. 80Maps/Helvetiq

A souvenir postcard from 1914, featuring 24 flags, each matching its canton. Spot the seven animals. 80Maps/Helvetiq

A 1715 map by Zurich polymath Johann Scheuchzer, whose accuracy and scientific approach to cartography set new benchmarks. Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Fortress Geneva: this map from 1760 shows the impressive fortifications of the then independent city-state. Also notable is how close the countryside was to the city. 80Maps/Helvetiq

Graphic designer Ursula Hitz squeezed 41 Swiss mountains and their altitudes into this map. The location of each peak is marked by a nearby triangle. 80Maps/Helvetiq

In 1832, the authorities set out to measure every centimetre of Switzerland. The last of 25 separate sheets, each one 70cm by 48cm, was published in 1865 Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Napoleon must have been a cartographer’s worst nightmare. By 1808 Switzerland was a confederation comprising 13 “old” cantons, six new ones and various allied regions. The box in the top-left corner of this British map attempts to explain all this. Zentralbibliothek Zürich

According to legend, the founder of Bern said he would name his new city after the first animal he killed in the woods. This map from 1700 was not the only one to impose a bear over the canton’s border 80Maps/Helvetiq

A map from December 16, 1940, showing the location and number of foreign soldiers interned in northwest Switzerland. Zeutschel Omniscan 12

Fribourg as it appeared from the air – or a mapmaker’s imagination – in 1606. This map, measuring 156cm by 86cm, was engraved into eight copper plates. 80Maps/Helvetiq

A 1973 map of a planned Zurich underground line, going from Kloten and the airport, through the city centre and out to Dietikon. Voters had other ideas, rejecting it by a wide margin. Zentralbibliothek Zürich

The two small half-cantons of Appenzell Inner Rhoden and Appenzell Ausser Rhoden used to be one, but split following the Reformation Ausser Rhoden became mainly Protestant (red) and Inner Rhoden stayed Catholic (green). Zentralbibliothek Zürich

The view from Mount Rigi in central Switzerland was a must-see for Victorian visitors. This map/souvenir, from the early 1860s, places Rigi in the centre surrounded by a panoramic view from the top. 80Maps/Helvetiq

A close-up of a poster from 1920 promoting the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon (BLS) railway, which opened in 1913 and slashed travel times to Italy. 80Maps/Helvetiq

Another early map, from 1595, but this time the “right” way up and recognisable as the Switzerland we know today – even if Lake Lucerne is split in two. Zentralbibliothek Zürich

The Pfyffer Relief of central Switzerland, built over 24 years by a soldier, measures 6.7 metres by 3.6 metres and is the oldest large relief model in the world. It was such a hit when it was finished in 1786 that souvenir pictures of it, like this one, were painted. 80Maps/Helvetiq

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“A map is the perfect pictorial way to explain and entertain,” writes Diccon Bewes, author of Around Switzerland in 80 Maps, a new book that charts more than 500 years of Swiss history using maps of all shapes, sizes, colours – and accuracy.

Bewes unearths a hoard of maps, often buried deep in library archives, and guides the reader through the growth and development of Switzerland through the centuries.

All but one of the 80 maps are created by hand and range “from the circular island map of 1480 to the birth of modern Swiss cartography; from the British rail plan for Switzerland to a Soviet map of Basel during the Cold-War; from the 1970s Zurich map for men to the vision of a Greater Switzerland with 40 cantons”.

Bewes, a British travel writer and member of swissinfo.ch’s public council, explains: “Map by map, readers understand how Switzerland came to be and possibly where it is going.”

“Around Switzerland in 80 Maps” has been published during the UN-backed International Map Year, in which Switzerland is taking part.