Schwyz

Schwyz is a town of about 15,400 inhabitants and the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. It houses the Federal Charter of 1291, the Bundesbrief, the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, in the Bundesbriefmuseum. The earliest certain record of the name dates to 972, in Medieval Latin as villa Suittes; a number of uncertain records between 924 and 960 give the forms Swites and Switz, the name is recorded as Schwitz in the 13th century and in the 17th and 18th centuries often as Schweitz. The etymology is uncertain. It was long derived from an eponymous founder in Swiss legend, one Suito or Switer, an explanation found in Swiss school textbooks until the first half of the 20th century, but there is currently no consensus on the name's derivation.