Solothurn

Solothurn stands on the Aare at the foot of the Jura. The Roman settlement of Salodurum grew beside a river crossing, and the medieval town became an imperial city after the extinction of the Zähringen dynasty in 1218. Guilds gained a place in its government during the fourteenth century. Solothurn allied with Bern and entered the Swiss Confederation as a full member in 1481.

From 1530 to 1792 the French ambassador to the Confederation resided in Solothurn. By the seventeenth century a small patrician group dominated its government, while the city acquired grand houses, churches and an arsenal. Between 1667 and 1727 new bastions enlarged its defences. Secret ballots introduced in 1764 and measures against vote-buying in 1774 helped more non-patrician burghers enter the council. The French invasion of 1798 ended this old political order.