10 Countries Where The Capital Isn’t The City That You’d Expect

What comes to mind when one thinks of Switzerland? Chocolate? Cuckoo clocks? A banking industry that is linked to lost art and Nazi gold as a result of Hollywood depictions and the general secrecy and anonymity of the industry? Strict neutrality in all matters? Those are all stereotypes of course, but Switzerland’s financial system and apolitical stance on global affairs make it the ideal home for all sorts of enterprises and supranational bodies.

Geneva is the home of the International Red Cross, several United Nations agencies, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières and the YMCA, to name but a few. It is second only to Zurich, the home of ten of the world’s fifty largest companies and a host of additional international organisations (such as FIFA), in terms of population. Neither of these are the capital, however, despite Zurich having the country’s busiest airport, train station, zoo and museum.

Basel is the country’s second most prominent city economically (and third in terms of population) thanks to its huge pharmaceutical industry and the country’s oldest university, but it too plays second fiddle to Berne, the fourth largest city, politically.

With just over 130,000 inhabitants, Berne doesn’t even make the list of the top 500 most populous cities in Europe, with only Iceland, Luxembourg and the six microstates boasting smaller capitals. Playing host to very little outside the discreet inner workings of the government, it is easy to forget about.