republic · Germany and Central Europe
Canton of Uri
Origins
In 853 Louis the German gave the Reuss valley of Uri to the Fraumünster abbey of Zürich. When the Gotthard Pass was opened to traffic in the early 13th century, the valley gained strategic value, and in 1231 King Henry VII bought it back from the Habsburgs and granted it imperial immediacy. In 1291 Uri joined Schwyz and Unterwalden in the Federal Charter.
Rule and society
Free peasants governed themselves through the Landsgemeinde, the assembly of all men, which elected a Landammann. Wealth came from cattle, transport across the Gotthard and mercenary service. Uri expanded southwards over the pass, taking the Leventina valley in the 15th century. The legend of William Tell is set in Altdorf. The canton stayed Catholic during the Reformation.
Decline and legacy
The French invasion of 1798 brought Uri into the Helvetic Republic. It was restored as a canton in 1803 and remains a canton of Switzerland, crossed by the Gotthard road and railway tunnels.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- Canton of Uri was part of Old Swiss Confederacy1291 CE – 1798 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Canton of Uri. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/canton-of-uri
- MLA
- “Canton of Uri.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/canton-of-uri. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Canton of Uri.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/canton-of-uri.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Canton of Uri’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/canton-of-uri (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻