Sion

Sion stands in the upper Rhône valley, beneath the fortified heights of Valère and Tourbillon. Its bishops held temporal as well as religious authority in Valais. A charter confirmed the town's rights in 1338, and the bishop renewed them the following year. In 1475 Valaisan forces and their Swiss allies defeated a Savoyard army at the Planta outside Sion.

The town hall was built between 1657 and 1665. A major fire in 1788 destroyed much of Sion, including the episcopal residence at La Majorie and the castle of Tourbillon. After revolutionary and Napoleonic rule, Valais joined the Swiss Confederation in 1815.