Charles Philippe de Bosset (29 July 1773 - 15 March 1845) was a Swiss engineer, who as an officer of the British army, became governor of

Cephalonia Kefalonia or Cephalonia ( el, Κεφαλονιά), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It i ...

. The

de Bosset Bridge The De Bosset Bridge (formerly Drapano Bridge) is a stone bridge built in 1813 over the bay of Argostoli in Kefalonia. At 689.9 meters, it is the longest stone bridge over the sea in the world. History When the Republic of the Ionian Islands ...

in Cephalonia is named after him.

Life

Born in Neuenberg, Switzerland, de Bosset was a member of the so-called Swiss Regiment and rose to the rank of colonel. From 1810 to 1813, he was governor of the island of Cephalonia, and oversaw numerous infrastructure developments, including the expansion of the road network and the construction of today's De Bosset Bridge over the

Gulf of Argostoli The Gulf of Argostoli ( el, Κόλπος Αργοστολίου) is a gulf of the Ionian Sea on the island of Cephalonia, western Greece. It separates the Paliki peninsula from mainland Cephalonia, and opens toward the Ionian Sea in the south. The ...

. To increase financial leeway, he introduced taxes, e.g. on street lighting, and had illegal annexes on the main Lithostroto road demolished. In recognition of his services, de Bosset was made a Knight of the Order of Guelph in 1816.William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Band 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, S. 463 (archive.org). From 1816 to 1818 he served as Inspector of the Ionian Islands. On his retirement, he was presented by citizens with a gold medal inscribed in Greek and Italian. After his return to Switzerland, he frequently visited in England and made the work of the optician

Pierre-Louis Guinand Markree Observatory was an astronomical observatory in County Sligo, Ireland. The asteroid 9 Metis was discovered from this observatory in 1848 by Cooper's assistant Andrew Graham using a comet seeker telescope. (Signed 29 April 1848; the discove ...

known there. In 1827 de Bosset founded a glove factory in

Fleurier Fleurier was a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpice and ...

Archaeological work and collections

de Bosset carried out various excavations on Cephalonia and

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

. He bequeathed his archaeological and numismatic collection to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in London and to the city of Neuchâtel, where more than 40

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; grc, Μυκῆναι or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. Th ...

an vases are housed in the Musée cantonal d'archéologie.

References

External links

* Chaeles de Bosset, Wikipedia in German {{DEFAULTSORT:de Bosset, Charles Philippe 1773 births 1845 deaths History of Cephalonia Swiss numismatists Swiss archaeologists British Army officers