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We all looked at a map and saw all the different countries represented in different colors. A country has a certain boundary, and everything within it is what constitutes the country.
However, there are some exceptions. There is an unpopular country, they are the place of a country separate from the main plots, and the enclave is part of a country completely surrounded by another country.
Why does such a strange arrangement exist in the world? The reason is usually strange.
Learn more about the inhabitants of Europe and the strange environments created in all the events that are everywhere every day.
Usually, in this podcast, I will cover great historical events or important places.
This is not a plot. The place I’m going to cover in this episode is small and in a large scheme, quite irrelevant.
However, they are very interesting.
I will cover the background of three different residents in three different countries. Previously, I used to cover the topics of Explaves and Enclaves more broadly in the previous episode, but in this episode I want to focus on their origins.
All three of them are small, none of them have a population of more than 1,700, and although completely surrounded by another country, they are not far from the country’s mainland.
These three are not the only residents of Europe. There are other things that are compelling in their own way. I’m going to cover these three simply because they have interesting stories and because I’ve been to all three stories.
I’ll start with the community Büsingenam hochrhein. It is a German community completely surrounded by Switzerland and is part of the state of Baden Waltenborg.
The town has a population of about 1,500 people and covers an area of 7.62 square meters or 2.94 miles. It is separated from Germany, a land of 680 meters or 2,230 feet in its narrowest place.
The biggest question, and the question for every resident I’m going to cover, what’s going on? Why not part of Switzerland, or why is Germany not taking or negotiating a small piece of land to connect it with the rest of the country?
The village of Büsingen was originally part of the land of the medieval bishop Constance. By the 17th century it had been handed over to the hands of the Austrian Habsburgs who controlled much of the region during the peace in Westphalia.
Despite the Habsburg tie, Busingen was isolated from the geography of other Austrian or German-ruled lands, sitting among the territories dominated by the Swiss states.
The town’s defining activity took place in 1693. Village chief Johann Konrad von Stadion was a Catholic who was kidnapped by his Protestant relatives and brought to the neighboring Swiss city of Schaffhausen.
He was released after a long period of imprisonment and negotiations, but the incident made the department even worse: the Catholic Hasburg authorities retained the village, while the surrounding Protestant Swiss were not interested in taking it into account.
From that moment on, Büsingen’s strange isolation was deeply rooted.
In 1805, under the Treaty of Plasburg, Habsburg ceded most of the German territory to other German states. Büsingen was transferred to Württemberg and passed on to the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1810.
Baden’s territory later became part of the German Empire in 1871. Despite being completely surrounded by Switzerland, the village has never officially moved because the Swiss and Badens authorities were unable to reach a consensus on territorial exchanges.
In the 20th century, especially after World War I and after World War II, discussions on annexation of Büsingen to Switzerland to rationalize the border were discussed. The Büsingen people themselves held a referendum in 1918, with 96% of them voting to Switzerland. However, Germany demanded too much compensation for the land, and Switzerland refused.
As a result, the enclave state still exists.
As the village is geographically entangled with Switzerland, practical compromises have been made. Büsingen was politically German, but economically and socially integrated with Switzerland.
Although the euro is legal, it uses the Swiss franc as its main currency and is part of the Swiss customs and postal system. Telephone lines, water and infrastructure are related to Switzerland, not Germany. However, legally and administratively, it remains under German sovereignty.
In short, due to accidents in history, Büsingenam Hochrhein was deprived of a prejudice: political disputes in the 17th century, fragmentary reallocation of Habsburg land in the 19th century, and failure to exchange the territory in the 20th century.
Neither Switzerland nor Germany wanted to reopen the matter, as local arrangements can now go smoothly. As a result, the village is still a curiosity: a German island in Switzerland.
The next preference I want to cover is the Spanish community of Llívia.
Llívia is part of Catalonia and is completely surrounded by France. Its population is about 1,200 people and has an area of 12.9 square meters or 5.0 miles. It is only 1.6 km or 1 mile with the rest of the Sapin.
Llívia was once an important settlement in the Sedania region of the Pyrenees. In fact, in the Visigothic era, it was the capital of Cerdanya, which had a higher legal status than the surrounding villages.
An important point…
By the Middle Ages, Llívia was firmly firmly in the late Spanish Aragon crown.
In the 17th century, Spain and France fought each other in the Franco-Spanish War, part of the Thirty Years’ War. The war between Spain and France ended with the Pyrenees treaty in 1659, where Spain ceded several territories north of the Pyrenees to France, including most of the Russilon and Northern Sedania region.
By the way, one of the strange things about the Pyrenees Treaty is the control of an island called Phesant Island in a river near the Atlantic side of the border. The two countries were unable to reach a consensus on who could control the island, so they proposed a novel solution. In fact, instead of dividing the island into two parts, they exchanged sovereignty on the island every six months.
This arrangement still exists today.
Under the Pyrenees treaty, Spain was forced to ced northern Catalonia to France. The treaty stipulates that Spain will abandon the “village” of Sedania to France.
The word for surgery is village.
Llívia has a special status to save it from this transfer. Unlike the surrounding settlements, Llívia is not classified as a “village” or Vila in Catalonia, but a “country” or a “town” or a Ciutat.
It holds the legal status of the city as it has always been the historical capital of Serdania and the seat of regional government. Since the treaty specifically refers to “villages”, Levia is technically excluded from the territorial transfer.
We don’t know the real reason for what happened, but it’s not necessarily a supervision. This may have been intentional diplomatic maneuvers by Spanish negotiators who were aware of Levia’s special status.
The difference between a “village” and a “town” or a “city” had real legal weight in medieval and modern Europe, which usually determines administrative privileges, tax rights and political representation.
As a result, Levia was still Spanish when France controlled the surrounding areas of northern Sedania.
Llívia has been relatively isolated for centuries, and relations between France and Spain have sometimes become tense. In 1866, in the Treaty of Bayoni, the two countries agreed to build a special “neutral road” that connects Lalivia to Spain.
France cannot place customs checkpoints on this road to ensure that the town can openly access other parts of Spain.
Unlike Busingen, Llívia does not have to use so many French institutions, as both countries are in the EU.
The last spare I want to cover is Campion Dilaria. An Italian community surrounded by Switzerland.
Campione d’Italia is the largest of the three populations I cover with a population of less than 1,800. It is located on the banks of Lake Lugano and covers an area of 2.68 square meters or 1.03 miles.
At the closest point, it is just one kilometre or 0.6 miles from the rest of Italy.
Campen’s unique status began in the 8th century, and his religious donations were crucial. In 777, a Lombardy nobleman named Toto D’Campione gave the area near Campione to the monastery of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan.
The word “Campione” means Italian.
It seems like a simple religious gift, but it establishes something legally meaningful: Campun becomes a church territory under Milan’s control, although it is geographically separated from Milan by mountainous areas and other territories.
This religious connection is not just symbolic. Medieval monasteries were powerful economic and political entities. The Monastery of Sant’Ambrogio is particularly influential because of its connection to Milan, which has become one of the most important commercial centers in northern Italy. Therefore, when Campun became the territory of the monastery, it could enter the Milan trade network, law and protection.
Over the centuries, the Swiss Federation has gradually expanded around Lake Lugano. Switzerland gained control of the surrounding territory through a combination of military conquests, political alliances and strategic marriages between ruling families. However, they never conquered or claimed Campion itself.
Why doesn’t Switzerland ask?
Several factors work together. First, Campion is small and strategically insufficient to justify the diplomatic complications of seizing territory belonging to Milan’s interests. Second, the town sits on the peninsula and reaches into the lake, making it somewhat isolated and defensible. Third, and perhaps most importantly, there are often greater political considerations in their role. Switzerland sometimes has alliances or trade relations with Milan, which gives the respected Campen a special status in diplomacy.
After Napoleon’s fall, the Vienna Congress restored Lombardy (including Campion) to Austrian rule in 1815. Switzerland hopes to annex small communities to fight for territorial coherence, but Austria rejects that, insisting that Campion is with Lombardy.
When Italy was unified in the 1860s, the new Italian state inherited all the territories that were historically Italian kingdoms, principalities and other political entities. This includes Campione because of its ancient connections to the Milan and Lombardy regions.
Meanwhile, Switzerland consolidates its modern federal form. The Swiss could have claimed Campione based on geographical logic because it was completely surrounded by Swiss territory. But by this point, centuries of precedent have established the Italian figures of Campsian.
Mussolini added “d’Italia” to the name Campen In 1933, his Italian identity was emphasized. In fact, however, because it was surrounded by Switzerland, Campen relied heavily on Swiss services: the Swiss franc became a daily currency, using the Swiss telephone network and postal system, and even the casino established in 1917 to generate revenue to generate revenue and cater to Swiss customers to a large extent.
After World War II, when the European border was redemarcated, there was a chance to “rationalize” such enclaves. However, both the Italian and Swiss governments and residents of Campion tend to maintain historical arrangements. The town’s special status is formally confirmed in various modern treaties.
When I happened to be in the area, I spent some time visiting all three of the only places. In these three cases, I had to go out of my way to visit because there was no other reason to visit other than saying you were there.
In each case, it will be difficult for you to determine when you are in besides the signage, as there is not much difference between isolation and its surroundings.
The important gains from these three places are not that they are important or strategic. They really aren’t.
It is the seemingly random decisions made centuries ago that still affect the borders and geopolitical landscape of today’s Europe.
