Discover Zurich

A taste of Zurich

Zurich is Switzerland's largest city and its financial capital — a calm, prosperous, beautifully sited town on the northern shore of Lake Zurich, with the snow-capped Alps visible to the south, the medieval Old Town clustered tightly along the Limmat river, and a per-capita wealth that consistently puts it near the top of every global quality-of-life ranking. The compact pedestrianised Altstadt (Old Town) is the visual heart, split by the Limmat into two halves — the more medieval Niederdorf on the east bank (with the dramatic twin-towered Romanesque Grossmünster Cathedral, where Huldrych Zwingli launched the Swiss Reformation in 1519), and the elegant Lindenhof and Fraumünster (with the spectacular 1970 Chagall stained-glass windows) on the west bank. The world-famous luxury shopping street Bahnhofstrasse runs from the central station down to the lakeshore — a 1.4km strip that's the most expensive retail real estate in continental Europe. Don't miss the brilliant Kunsthaus Zürich (Switzerland's largest art museum, recently expanded by David Chipperfield, with major Giacometti, Hodler, and Chagall holdings), the brilliantly preserved Zürich West regenerated industrial district (the old Schiffbau is now the city's main theatre), a swim in the brilliantly clean lake from the Strandbad Mythenquai in summer, and a day trip up the Uetliberg mountain (870m, panoramic Alpine views) by the 20-minute scenic train.