Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The sovereign state is a federal republic situated in western, central and southern Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of (land area ). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the
Cantons of Switzerland until the late 15th century. "Ort" was increasingly replaced by "Stand" (plural: "Stände") "estate" about 1550, a term taken to imply liberty and sovereignty. Abolished in the Helvetic Republic, the term was revived in 1815 and remains in use today. The French term "canton" adopted into German after 1648, and then only in occasional use until the early 19th century: prominent usage of "Ort" and "Stand" gradually disappeared in German-speaking Switzerland from the time of the Helvetic Republic. Only with the Act of Mediation of 1803 did German "Kanton" become an official designation, retained in the Swiss Constitution of 1848.