headquarters_location postal telegraph and telephone 
The city of ___MASK54___ or Berne (; Bernese German : " Bärn " ) is the de facto capital of Switzerland , referred to by the Swiss as their ( e . g . in German ) " Bundesstadt ," or " federal city ". With a population of 141 , 762 ( November 2016 ), ___MASK54___ is the fourth most populous city in Switzerland . The ___MASK54___ agglomeration , which includes 36 municipalities , had a population of 406 , 900 in 2014 . The metropolitan area had a population of 660 , 000 in 2000 . ___MASK54___ is also the capital of the canton of ___MASK54___ , the second most populous of Switzerland ' s cantons . ___MASK97___ , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic in Europe . It consists of 26 cantons , and the city of ___MASK54___ is the seat of the federal authorities . The country is situated in Western - Central Europe , and is bordered by Italy to the south , France to the west , Germany to the north , and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east . ___MASK97___ is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps , the Swiss Plateau and the Jura , spanning an area of . While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory , the Swiss population of approximately eight million people is concentrated mostly on the plateau , where the largest cities are to be found : among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva . Swiss Post (, ) is the national postal service of ___MASK97___ . A public company owned by the Swiss Confederation , it is the country ' s second largest employer ( after the Federation of Migros Cooperatives ). The group is based in ___MASK54___ . PTT ( German : Post , Telefon und Telegraph , French : Postes , téléphones , télégraphes ) was the Swiss Postal Telegraph and Telephone agency , formed in 1970 . In the course of the international trend towards liberalisation of the telecommunications market , it was transformed into two public service companies on January 1 , 1998 , Swiss Post and Swisscom . While Swiss Post remained a government agency with a partial service monopoly , Swisscom became a competitor on a liberalised telecommunications market and is an Aktiengesellschaft of which the Confederation holds a majority of shares .