Swiss Federal Office of Topography

Swisstopo, or the Swiss Federal Office of Topography is Switzerland's national mapping agency. In 1809, the first topographical surveys of Switzerland took place on a confederate, military level. Measurements in the alpine region started in 1825 with triangulations by Antoine-Joseph Buchwalder. In 1838, the Topographical Bureau (Eidgenössisches Topographisches Bureau) was founded in Carouge, Genève by Guillaume Henri Dufour. The bureau published its first map the same year, the Carte topographique du Canton de Genève. Under Dufour, topographic surveys of the alpine regions of Switzerland were published from 1845; the survey was completed in 1862. In honour of Dufour, the Swiss government renamed Höchste Spitze to Dufourspitze. The first maps with relief shading were published in 1887.