Editing Switzerland (section)

=== Federal City ===
Until 1848, the loosely coupled Confederation did not have a central political organisation. Issues thought to affect the whole Confederation were the subject of periodic meetings in various locations.<ref>{{HDS|10077|Confederal Diet|author=Andreas Würgler|date=25 September 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Bern 007 (35250800705).jpg|thumb|The [[Old City of Bern]]]]
In 1848, the federal constitution provided that details concerning federal institutions, such as their locations, should be addressed by the [[Federal Assembly of Switzerland|Federal Assembly]] (BV 1848 Art. 108). Thus on 28 November 1848, the Federal Assembly voted in the majority to locate the seat of government in Bern and, as a prototypical federal compromise, to assign other federal institutions, such as the [[ETH Zurich|Federal Polytechnical School]] (1854, the later ETH) to Zurich, and other institutions to Lucerne, such as the later [[SUVA]] (1912) and the Federal Insurance Court (1917).<ref name="Bundesstadt" /> Other federal institutions were subsequently attributed to [[Lausanne]] ([[Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland|Federal Supreme Court]] in 1872, and [[École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne|EPFL]] in 1969), [[Bellinzona]] ([[Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland|Federal Criminal Court]], 2004), and [[St. Gallen]] ([[Federal Administrative Court (Switzerland)|Federal Administrative Court]] and [[Federal Patent Court (Switzerland)|Federal Patent Court]], 2012).

The 1999 Constitution does not mention a Federal City and the Federal Council has yet to address the matter.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 July 2006 |title=Bundesstadtstatus Stadt Bern |url=https://www.bk.admin.ch/themen/gesetz/07212/07416/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171010143933/https://www.bk.admin.ch/themen/gesetz/07212/07416/index.html |archive-date=10 October 2017 |access-date=11 May 2017 |publisher=Swiss Federal Chancellery |language=de, fr, it |type=official website |location=Bern, Switzerland}}</ref> Thus no city in Switzerland has the ''official'' status either of capital or of Federal City. Nevertheless, Bern is commonly referred to as "Federal City" ({{langx|de|link=no|Bundesstadt}}, {{langx|fr|link=no|ville fédérale}}, {{langx|it|città federale}}).