Stamps

Pro Patria – Valais bisses

The 2025 Pro Patria stamps are dedicated to Valais bisses. Often built in extreme conditions, these masterpieces of engineering have channelled water through rough mountain landscapes for decades.

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The stamps show a hiker next to a bisse (100-centime stamp) and the view into the valley from another bisse (120-centime stamp).

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Scan the stamps and find out more

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These historical irrigation channels tell the story of a traditional engineering method. The open water pipes are laid in the ground, cut into rock or suspended from steep rock faces, all to channel glacier water from the mountain streams to the pastures, fields, vineyards or orchards in the dry areas below, for instance to the dry landscape of the Lötschberg south ramp. To manage this area, bisses were built under the toughest conditions. One of these is the Gorperi, built in 1640, which carries water from the Baltschiederbach stream to the slopes around Eggerberg. Another example is the 14-kilometre long Grand Bisse de Lens. Despite the extremely difficult passages along sheer rock faces, it was constructed over the space of just two years in the 15th century.

Colour in and win prizes

With a little luck, you could win one of two vouchers for postshop.ch worth CHF 100. 

Here’s how it works

On the front of both sheetlets, you will find four coloured blobs that can be moistened with a little water and turned into paints. Use this paint to colour in the designated section of the sheetlet, cut this part off the sheet, then send the picture, complete with your last name, first name and address, to:

Post CH Network Ltd
Stamps & Philately
Wankdorfallee 4
3030 Bern

The closing date for entries is 30 June 2025.

Conditions of participation

Sheetlet of 10 stamps each
Sheetlet of 10 stamps each
Set on first-day cover C6
Set on first-day cover C6
Stamp booklet
Stamp booklet

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All stamps and philatelic products can be found at postshop.ch

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Technical information

Sales

Philately: from 1.5.2025 to 31.12.2025 or while stocks last

Branches: from 8.5.2025 to 31.12.2025 or while stocks last

Validity

Unlimited from 8.5.2025

Printing

Offset, 4-colour; Cartor Security Printers, Meaucé-La Loupe, France

Formats

Stamp: 33 × 28 mm

Sheet: 214 × 124 mm, 2 rows of 5 stamps

Paper

White stamp paper, with optical brightener, self-adhesive, on backing paper, 196 gm2

Perforation

Serpentine cut (4 sides)

Design

Gabriel Giger, Leuk-Stadt