Canton of Solothurn

The canton of Solothurn, also called Soleure in French, is a canton in the northwest of Switzerland, and its capital is the city of Solothurn. Its territory was assembled mainly from lands the former town acquired in the Middle Ages, so the canton is irregular in shape and includes two exclaves along the French border, cut off from the rest of the canton by Basel-Landschaft. It borders Jura and Bern to the west and south, Aargau to the east and Basel-Landschaft to the north, and the Aare river drains its mostly flat land. Solothurn joined the military alliance of the former Swiss confederation in 1481, kept its Catholic religion after the Reformation and was reconstituted as a canton in 1803. It covers about 791 square kilometres and has 104 municipalities.