Carouge - Bureau topographique fédéral 1838
Why is it that 1838 is regarded as the founding year for one of the oldest elements in what was to become the Swiss government – a full decade before 1848?
It all started six years earlier, on 20 September 1832, when Guillaume-Henri Dufour (1787-1875) was appointed Quartermaster General of the Confederation by the Legislative Assembly (“Tagsatzung”). In this capacity, he was responsible for continuing the trigonometric surveys which had been declared by the Legislative Assembly to be a matter of national importance in 1822.
Between 1832 and 1836, in three sessions of the commission specifically convened for the purpose of the topographic survey, the basic parameters for the upcoming 1:100,000 topographic map of Switzerland were set. When Dufour took over the reins, work on this project was already underway.
Yet, as in previous years, it was not making much headway because limited financial resources meant there were no permanent staff. Thanks to Dufour’s outspoken report of March 1837, resources were allocated at the Legislative Assembly of 17 August 1837, although the Legislative Assembly could not bring itself to formally recognise this national institution.
Dufour immediately set up the Bureau topographique fédéral, which he ran from the beginning of 1838 in Carouge. This initiative counts as the official moment when today’s Federal Office of Topography swisstopo came into existence.
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Seftigenstrasse 264
3084 Wabern