Explore Zurich

The Lindenhof is a moraine hill and public square above the Limmat in Zurich's old town. A Roman fort and later a Carolingian imperial palace stood here, and the city grew around it; the hilltop is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. Today the tree-shaded square has benches, giant chess boards and a view over the river to the Grossmünster.

St. Peter is one of the main churches of Zurich's old town, on a hill beside the Lindenhof, where Roman Turicum lay. Its 64 m tower belongs to the city and carries four clock faces, each about 8.7 m across; for centuries it gave Zurich its official time. The spire was re-covered in 1996 with 42,000 larch shingles.

The Fraumünster is a church on the left bank of the Limmat in Zurich, standing on the site of an abbey for noblewomen founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard. Today a Reformed church, it has a slender green spire, and its choir holds five stained-glass windows designed by Marc Chagall and installed in 1970.

The National Museum Zurich is the main site of the Swiss National Museum, next to Zurich main station and the Platzspitz park. Gustav Gull designed its 1898 building in the style of a French Renaissance château, and a new wing opened in 2016. Its permanent and temporary exhibitions cover the history and cultural history of Switzerland from prehistory to the present.

The Grossmünster is a Romanesque church on the Limmat in Zurich, built from around 1100 and inaugurated around 1220, with twin towers first raised in 1487–1492. Huldrych Zwingli launched the Reformation in Zurich from here in 1520. Inside are a Romanesque crypt and stained-glass windows by Augusto Giacometti, and visitors can climb the Karlsturm tower.

The Kunsthaus Zürich is an art museum on Heimplatz, run by the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft. Its original building by Karl Moser and Robert Curjel opened in 1910, and a sandstone-clad extension by David Chipperfield was added in 2021. The collection runs from the Middle Ages to the present, with works by Monet, Munch, Picasso and Alberto Giacometti.

The FIFA Museum is a football museum run by FIFA that opened in 2016 in the Enge quarter of Zurich, opposite Enge railway station. It fills the lower three floors of the rebuilt Haus zur Enge and traces the history of the international game, from early football to the World Cup, with trophies, shirts and interactive displays.

Museum Rietberg is the City of Zurich's museum for art from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania, set in the Rieterpark in Enge. It opened in 1952 in the Villa Wesendonck of 1857 to show the collection Eduard von der Heydt had given to the city, and today also uses the Park-Villa Rieter and an underground extension with a glass entrance pavilion.

The Pavillon Le Corbusier is the last building designed by Le Corbusier, completed in 1967 after his death on the Zürichhorn lakeshore in Zurich for the gallerist Heidi Weber. It is his only building made of steel and glass, with coloured enamel panels under a free-standing steel roof. The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich runs it as a museum during the summer season.

Zürich Zoo opened in 1929 on the lower slopes of the Zürichberg, in the Fluntern quarter of Zurich. Its animals live in habitats grouped by region, among them the Masoala Rainforest, a hall recreating a forest of Madagascar, and the Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park, where a wide wooden roof spans the indoor enclosure of the Asian elephants.

The Uetliberg is Zurich's local mountain, rising to 870 m on the Albis chain west of the city. The S10 train of the Sihltal Zürich Uetliberg Bahn climbs from the main station to just below the summit, Uto Kulm, where a 72 m steel lattice observation tower and a hotel stand. From the top, trails lead along the ridge to Felsenegg.

Felsenegg is a viewpoint at about 800 m on the Albis ridge south-west of Zurich, overlooking the Sihl valley and Lake Zurich. The Felseneggbahn cable car, run since 1954, climbs from Adliswil in about five minutes, and from its top station the Planetenweg trail follows the ridge to the Uetliberg.