Bern, Lucerne & Central Switzerland

The Confederation began on the shores of Lake Lucerne. The valley communities of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, which controlled the approach to the Gotthard pass, sealed an alliance in 1291; tradition places the oath on the Rütli meadow above the lake, and the legend of William Tell, the crossbowman of Altdorf, grew around the same struggle against Habsburg officials. The peasants beat Habsburg armies at Morgarten in 1315 and at Sempach in 1386, and Schwyz eventually gave its name to the whole country.

Lucerne joined the alliance in 1332 and Bern in 1353. Bern, founded in 1191 by the Zähringen dukes on a loop of the Aare, became the largest city-state north of the Alps, conquering Aargau, and in 1536 Vaud. It turned Protestant in 1528, while Lucerne and the forest cantons remained the Catholic heartland, and the central cantons fought on the losing Catholic side in the Sonderbund War of 1847.

In 1848 Bern was chosen as the federal city, the seat of government. The 19th century also brought the tourists: the English climbers and walkers of the Oberland, grand hotels in Interlaken and Lucerne, and railways up the mountains, culminating in the Jungfraujoch line, opened in 1912. Uri was transformed by the Gotthard rail tunnel of 1882 and by the Gotthard Base Tunnel, opened in 2016. The French-speaking Jura broke away from Bern in 1979, but Bern remains a bilingual canton through Biel/Bienne and the Bernese Jura.

Central Switzerland sees itself as the country's original core, and the federal symbols are everywhere: the Rütli, the Tell monument in Altdorf, and the 1291 charter displayed in Schwyz. Bernese are teased for their slow speech and unhurried manner, a reputation they wear comfortably; the Bernese dialect is one of the most distinct in German-speaking Switzerland.

Rural traditions stay strong in the Emmental and the Oberland. Schwingen, Swiss wrestling in sawdust rings, yodelling choirs, alphorns and flag-throwing fill the summer festivals, and the Unspunnen festival near Interlaken is famous for the throwing of a heavy boulder. Hornussen, a team game of striking a puck across a field, is at home in the Emmental. Woodcarving is the craft of Brienz.

Lucerne's Fasnacht is the great Catholic carnival of German-speaking Switzerland, opening before dawn on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and filling the old town with brass bands playing deliberately off-key Guggenmusik. Catholic pilgrimage is alive at the monastery of Einsiedeln, and Bern's Zibelemärit in November covers the old town in onion garlands.

Bern has about 145,000 people and Lucerne about 85,000; Biel/Bienne, with about 55,000, is the watch town, and Thun is the gateway to the Oberland. The rest of the region is small towns, farming valleys and mountain villages, with Interlaken's few thousand residents hosting far larger numbers of visitors.

Bern is a city of civil servants, federal offices, the parliament and embassies; Biel is home to watchmakers including Swatch, Omega and Rolex, and the Emmental makes cheese. Tourism dominates the Oberland and Lucerne, and the lake cantons have used low taxes to attract companies and wealthy residents. Victorinox makes Swiss army knives in Ibach near Schwyz.

Life is unhurried. In summer the people of Bern float down the Aare past the Federal Palace at lunchtime and after work. Mountain villages follow the farming year, with cows driven up to the alp in June and down in September. Overtourism in Lucerne and Lauterbrunnen, and the future of mountain resorts under climate change, are local talking points.

The Bernese table is famously generous. The Berner Platte is a platter of smoked pork, sausages, tongue and bacon served over sauerkraut, green beans and potatoes. Emmentaler, the large, holed cheese, comes from the Emmental valley, and central Switzerland makes Sbrinz, a very hard, long-aged cheese for grating and shaving.

Lucerne's signature is the Chügelipastete, a large puff-pastry shell filled with veal and mushrooms in cream sauce. In Uri and the high valleys, Älplermagronen and cheese dishes sustain walkers. Fish from Lake Lucerne and Lake Thun, especially perch and whitefish, are served in lakeside restaurants.

Meiringen, in the Haslital, claims to be the birthplace of the meringue, served here with whipped cream. Berner Lebkuchen is a local gingerbread, and the Zibelemärit sells onion tart and onion soup. The region's beer, cider and small-scale wine from Lake Biel and Lake Thun round out the drink.

Bern's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has long arcades, the Gothic Münster, the Zytglogge clock tower, painted fountains, the Federal Palace, the house on Kramgasse where Einstein lived from 1903 to 1905, and the bear park by the river; the Zentrum Paul Klee holds the painter's work.

Lucerne and its lake form the second centre: the Chapel Bridge, rebuilt after a fire in 1993, the Lion Monument carved into a cliff, the Swiss Museum of Transport, and paddle steamers sailing to Weggis, Vitznau, Brunnen and Flüelen. Mount Pilatus is reached from Alpnachstad by a cogwheel railway with gradients close to 48 percent, and Rigi faces it across the water. Engelberg, with its 12th-century Benedictine abbey, is the base for the Titlis and its revolving cable car.

Interlaken lies between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. Beyond it, the Jungfrau region has Grindelwald beneath the Eiger north face, Lauterbrunnen's valley of waterfalls including the Trümmelbach Falls inside the rock, car-free Wengen and Mürren, the Schilthorn, and the rack railway to the Jungfraujoch at 3,454 metres, looking down on the Aletsch Glacier. Further east, the Aare Gorge near Meiringen and the Reichenbach Falls, where Conan Doyle sent Sherlock Holmes over the edge, complete the Oberland.