Unterwalden

Unterwalden Unterwalden
c. 1300–1798 1815–1999
Flag Coat of arms
Status	Canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy
History
• Established	c. 1300
• Imperial immediacy	1309
• Pact of Brunnen	1315
• division of Obwalden and Nidwalden	before 1500
• Disestablished modern canton	1798 1815–1999
Preceded by Succeeded by Zürichgau (Swabia) Aargau (Burgundy) Canton of Waldstätten Canton of Waldstätten Canton of Obwalden Canton of Nidwalden

Unterwalden, translated from the Latin inter silvas

.

The name Unterwalden is first recorded in 1304, as the translation of Latin inter silvas, which together with in intramontanis was the name for monastery possessions in the area. In 1291, Rudolf I of Germany purchased the estates at Stans, Alpnach and Giswil. From 1304, the local bailiffs used their own seal. In 1309, Henry VII confirmed the imperial immediacy of the territory of Unterwalden as part of the imperial bailiwick of Waldstätte (but not as a political entity in its own right). The

, internally dated 1291, is thought to originate at this time. In the text, Unterwalden figures as communitas hominum Intramontanorum Vallis Inferioris "community of the men between the mountains of the Lower Valley"; this is usually rendered as "the community of the Lower Valley of Unterwalden" in modern translations, and interpreted as Nidwalden or "Unterwalden proper". Unterwalden was one of the three participants in the .

The division of Unterwalden into two separate territories, Obwalden and Nidwalden in the early period is less than clear. Their status as two independent Talschaften appears to develop over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, while they retain a single vote in the Confederacy.

The

in the 14th and 15th centuries was divided horizontally into equal parts red over white, identical with the flag of Solothurn. After the accession of Solothurn to the Confederacy in 1481, there were two cantons with identical flags, sometimes disambiguated by modifying the design of Solothurn's flag. By 1600, Nidwalden was known as Unterwalden proper or Subsylvania, while Obwalden was known as "Unterwalden ob dem Wald", strictly speaking an oxymoron, as it were Subsylvania super silva. From this time, there are also two separate coats of arms for the two half-cantons, the red-and-white flag for Unterwalden proper or Nidwalden, while Obwalden had a silver key in a red field.

By the 1640s, these two designs were re-combined in a white-and-red key on a red-and-white field (per fess gules and argent, a key paleways with double

) as the coat of arms of the united canton.

In

, Unterwalden counted as a single state in "foreign relations" with the other member states of the Swiss Confederacy, but it consisted of two separate states internally, with separate governments, jurisdictions and separate flags.

).

Unterwalden was restored in the Act of Mediation (1803) with a single constitution, but with two separate capitals, Sarnen and Stans, and two separate cantonal assemblies with equal sovereignty.^[2]

Unterwalden was a canton of the

Gallery

• 
  Unterwalden depicted as one of the thirteen cantons in 1572. Its name is Latinized as Sylvania, and its date of foundation is given as 1315, the date of the

  Flag of Solothurn

  .
• 
  Standesscheibe of Unterwalden (16th century), showing the red-and-white design for Obwalden and the double-key design for Nidwalden.
• 
  1642 map of Underwalden (

  Matthäus Merian

  )

References

Further reading

• Emil Weber: Unterwalden in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2013.
• Vnderwalden in M. Zeiller, Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae (1642).
• Coolidge, William Augustus Brevoort (1911). "Unterwalden" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). pp. 780–781.

46°52′N 8°19′E / 46.87°N 8.31°E / 46.87; 8.31