Das Schützenfest in Stans. 1861.

Title

Das Schützenfest in Stans. 1861.

Description

Collector's sheet of Stans in the canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland with 10 marginal views in a bodour. Stans is one of the oldest settlements in the entire Nidwalden valley. In 1386, during the Battle of Sempach, a Stans soldier, Arnold von Winkelried, is said to have thrown himself on the pikes of the Habsburg army, leading the Swiss to victory. It is doubtful, however, whether he existed or perished in the battle, since the first mention of his selfless act appears more than 150 years after the battle and a man who might have been Arnold was involved in a lawsuit in 1389. Nevertheless, the legend is firmly rooted in Stans, with a monument and his house in the village. After the Swiss victories in the Burgundian Wars, the Old Confederation was nearly torn apart by an internal conflict when the city cantons insisted on receiving the lion's share of the proceeds since they had provided most of the troops. The rural cantons refused, and the Tagsatzung, or the boards of the individual cantons, met in Stans in 1481 to resolve the problems. However, they did not succeed in resolving the problems, and war seemed inevitable. A local hermit, Niklaus von der Flüe, was consulted. He asked to convey a message to the members of the Tagsatzung in his name. The content of this message is not known to this day, but it calmed tempers and led to the drafting of the Stanser Verkommnisses. As part of the Verkommnisses, Fribourg and Solothurn were admitted to the Confederation. In 1798, Stans was attacked by French troops as Nidwalden rebelled against Napoléon Bonaparte's new constitution. After these days of terror in Nidwalden, the teacher Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi took the orphaned children into his first school. The Nidwalden Landsgemeinde was held in Oberdorf until its abolition in 1997.

ca. 1870

Artist

Hallberger