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Swiss Perspectives in 10 languages.
SWI swissinfo.ch is the international online medium of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). It provides information and background from a Swiss perspective in ten languages. The core topics are direct democracy, Swiss foreign policy, cutting-edge research, multinational companies and developments emanating from International Geneva.
Swiss Watch-making cities added to the UNESCO World Heritage List
The two swiss cities La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The layout and building of the two cities, located in the Jura Region of Switzerland, reflect watch-makers’ need of rational organization. Planned in the early 19th century, after extensive fires, the towns owed their existence to this single industry. Their layout along an open-ended scheme of parallel strips on which residential housing and workshops are intermingled reflects the needs of the local watch-making culture that dates to the 17th century and is still alive today. The site presents outstanding examples of mono-industrial manufacturing-towns which are well preserved and still active. The urban planning of both towns has accommodated the transition from the artisanal production of a cottage industry to the more concentrated factory production of the late 19th and 20th centuries.