Tearing Switzerland apart

Tucked into the middle of Europe, Switzerland is small in size but full of variety. It’s a place where mountain valleys can feel like a different country from the next town over, and where language, culture, and even habits change with the landscape. These differences are usually drawn on political maps, but there’s another way to look at them – through maps that sort the country in far less official (and far more amusing) ways.

The first of these maps offers nine imaginative ways to split the country. Some are grounded in reality, like the familiar language borders between French-, German-, Italian-, and Romansh-speaking regions, or the contrast between flatlands, rolling hills, and the high Alps. Others are more tongue-in-cheek: areas “where the cities are” versus “where the cities aren’t,” or the few Swiss people who apparently dislike no one at all. There’s even a playful nod to the ongoing confusion over whether Switzerland has a capital — and to those who mistakenly think it’s their hometown.

The second map keeps the same mischievous spirit but changes the categories. It shows where naked hiking supposedly happens, where beer or wine is more popular, and how drivers are perceived in different areas. Some splits are purely geographic — small hills, big hills, very big hills – while others rely on cultural stereotypes, like the long-standing love–hate feelings toward Zürich.

The playful stereotypes layered over these facts turn these maps into something more – a lighthearted look at how people see themselves and each other, both inside and outside the country.

This style might feel familiar — it’s much like The Atlas of Prejudice by Yanko Tsvetkov, a collection of satirical maps that poke fun at how we mentally redraw borders based on clichés and assumptions. If that sounds like your kind of humor, the atlas is available on Amazon.