What is the capital of Switzerland?

Switzerland deliberately avoids naming a capital. When the modern federal state was formed in 1848, the cantons were wary of concentrating power in any one city, so the constitution simply designated Bern as the seat of the federal authorities, and the Swiss still call it the federal city rather than the capital. Bern was chosen partly because it lies close to the language boundary between the German-speaking majority and French-speaking Switzerland and was less commercially dominant than the alternatives, making it politically acceptable. The city itself occupies a tight loop of the Aare River, which is why its medieval centre survives so intact behind its arcaded streets, and the same defensive bend limited its growth. Federal institutions are also spread around the country, with the supreme court sitting in Lausanne, reinforcing the principle that no single city holds everything.

The Swiss federal supreme court sits in Lausanne rather than in Bern, part of the same deliberate dispersal.