Zürich

The Lindenhof, a tree-shaded terrace on a hill above the left bank of the Limmat, is where Zurich began: the Romans kept a customs post here, and later a fort. It holds the old town's classic view, across the river to the roofs of the Niederdorf, the twin towers of the Grossmünster and, on the slope above them, the main buildings of the university and ETH. Lanes lead down from the hill to the Fraumünster on the riverbank, whose choir holds five stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall, completed in 1970, each telling a biblical story in deep, saturated colour.

Across the river, the twin towers of the Grossmünster are Zurich's landmark. Huldrych Zwingli began preaching here in 1519, and the Reformation he led left the interior plain; its colour comes from the windows, Augusto Giacometti's in the choir and Sigmar Polke's of 2009, several of them made of thin slices of agate. One of the two towers, the Karlsturm, can be climbed for a view over the river and the lake. North of the church the Niederdorf follows the right bank, a car-free knot of lanes along Niederdorfstrasse, with the guild houses of the Limmatquai facing the river.

In the Niederdorf, at Spiegelgasse 1, the Cabaret Voltaire is where Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara and others launched Dada in February 1916, and the house is again an arts venue with exhibitions and evening events. James Joyce lived in Zurich from 1915 to 1919, writing much of Ulysses here, and came back to die in the city in 1941; his grave, with a seated statue of the writer, lies in the Fluntern cemetery on the Zürichberg, next to the zoo. The Zurich James Joyce Foundation, on Augustinergasse just off Bahnhofstrasse, keeps a library devoted to his work.

From Central, the square at the northern end of the Niederdorf, the Polybahn, a small red funicular, climbs in a couple of minutes to the Polyterrasse in front of the main building of ETH Zurich, the federal institute of technology where Albert Einstein studied. The terrace looks over the old town's roofs and towers to the lake and, on clear days, the Alps, and the main building of the University of Zurich stands next door.

The Kunsthaus, on Heimplatz a few minutes uphill from Bellevue, the tram junction at the lake end of the right bank, has been Switzerland's largest art museum since David Chipperfield's extension opened across the square in 2021, joined to the original building of 1910 by a passage under the street. Its collection runs from Swiss painting, Füssli to Hodler, to a large group of works by Edvard Munch, Monet and the Impressionists, Picasso and post-war art, and it shows the Alberto Giacometti Foundation's collection of the sculptor's work. Museum Rietberg, in the park of a 19th-century villa in Enge, on the west side of the lake, holds art from Asia, Africa and Oceania.

The Swiss National Museum (Landesmuseum) stands beside the main station in a turreted, castle-like building opened in 1898, with a concrete extension added in 2016. Its collections follow the country's story from prehistoric finds and medieval altarpieces to furniture, costume and panelled period rooms rebuilt inside the building. Behind it, the Platzspitz park fills the point where the Sihl flows into the Limmat.

Bahnhofstrasse runs 1.4 kilometres from the main station to the lake at Bürkliplatz, a street of department stores, watch and jewellery houses and fashion flagships, given over to trams and pedestrians. Halfway along, Paradeplatz is the heart of Swiss banking, with bank headquarters on its sides and tram lines crossing in the middle. Between Bahnhofstrasse and the Lindenhof, Rennweg and Augustinergasse keep the small scale of the old town, and the houses of Augustinergasse carry painted oriel windows.

At Bürkliplatz, where Bahnhofstrasse ends, Lake Zurich opens to the south-east, about 40 kilometres long, and promenades follow both shores out of the centre: on the east side along Utoquai and through Seefeld to the Zürichhorn park, on the west along Mythenquai. In the Zürichhorn park, the Pavillon Le Corbusier, the architect's last building, completed in 1967 after his death, shows his work in a pavilion of glass and coloured enamelled steel. Lake boats leave Bürkliplatz for short round trips and the long run up the lake to Rapperswil, and smaller boats ply the Limmat between the National Museum and the Zürichhorn.

From late spring to early autumn, Zurich swims in its lake and its river, in public baths (the Badis) a short walk or tram ride from the centre. Seebad Enge on the west shore and the beaches at Mythenquai and Tiefenbrunnen are on the lake; the Frauenbad at Stadthausquai, a wooden bath for women by day, stands in the Limmat itself, and downstream at the Oberer Letten locals jump in and drift with the current. On summer evenings several of the baths turn into bars.

Zurich West, the former industrial quarter of the fifth district (Kreis 5) around Escher-Wyss-Platz, has turned its factories and rail yards into a district of culture and new building. Im Viadukt fills the stone arches of a railway viaduct with shops, studios and a covered food market, and the Schiffbau, the old shipbuilding hall of the Escher Wyss works, is a stage of the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the city's main theatre. The 126-metre Prime Tower rises beside the Hardbrücke station, and next to the station the Freitag bag company's tower of stacked shipping containers, with a lookout at the top, is the district's landmark.

Langstrasse, the long street through Kreis 4, the district next door, is Zurich's nightlife quarter: bars, clubs and late kitchens of many cuisines line it and its side streets, and part of it is still the city's red-light district. Together with the bars and clubs of Zurich West, it is where the city goes out.

Zurich's own dish is Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, strips of veal in a cream and white-wine sauce with mushrooms, served with rösti, the crisp potato cake that gave its name to the Röstigraben, the line between German- and French-speaking Switzerland. Confiserie Sprüngli, on Paradeplatz since 1859, is known for its Luxemburgerli, bite-sized macarons, and Hiltl, opened on Sihlstrasse in 1898, is listed by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant.