Published on 7 November 2023

Bern

The Federal Office of Topography, founded in Geneva in 1838 by Guillaume-Henri Dufour as the Federal Topographical Bureau, is one of the oldest parts of the Swiss Federal Administration. The Dufour Map, a 1:100,000 topographic map of Switzerland and the first official nationwide map series, was published in 1845. The lease on the bureau’s premises in Geneva expired at the end of May 1865, after which a move to Bern was planned. Relocating to the Swiss capital marked the beginning of the Office’s nomadic existence, which was to last until 1941.