"Zurich" a Zürich Travel Page by smschley

We arrived in Zurich after spending a few weeks in Moscow. The difference between the two cities reminded me of the changing of the “Wizard of Oz” movie from black and white to Color. Zurich was the city of color. It was nice to be in a city where people smiled and had a zest for life. We were on the train from the airport to Zurich and I guess we looked a bit lost when a rider asked if he could help us out. I almost hugged the man, it was nice to find friendliness again in people

The Romans were the first to fortify Zurich, turning the site into a customs post in the first century BC and naming it Turicum. The legend of the city’s foundation dates to the martyrdom of Felix and Regula, two deserters from a Roman legion based in Valais. Guilds (which were to keep a hold on the city until the nineteenth century).

The thriving city experienced its zenith of power and prestige in the sixteenth century, when it became the first Swiss city to embrace the Reformation. The city’s spiritual father, Huldrych Zwingli preached in the Grossmünster from 1519 until his death in 1531. With the abolition of the Catholic Mass in 1525, Zurich became a center for dissident intellectuals from all over Europe.

Strict neutrality during World War I again made Zurich a refuge for dissidents, and for some months in 1916 and 1917, the city was home to Lenin, mulling over the future Russian Revolution.

With the recent revelations about Switzerland’s complicity with the Nazis, Zurich’s exact role during and after World War II hasn’t yet been discovered. One thing that is certain is that the city emerged to become one of the world’s leading financial centers.

Today, Zurich is the single most important market for gold and precious metals, and boasts the world’s fourth-largest stock market after New York, London and Tokyo. This exceptional affluence tends to define the city these days and yet, despite its wealth, Zurich is not a flashy place at all.

Because the River Limmat divides the Old Town into two distinct halves, it’s easier to consider the two banks of the river as separate entities rather than to concentrate on a New Town/Old Town split. The alleys of the east bank – known as Niederdorf or the “Dörfli” – are full of cafés and small shops, with the enormous twin towers of the Grossmünster as a centerpiece. The slender spire to the north belongs to the Predigerkirche with, above it on a hill to the east, the grandiose architecture of the university.

Opposite, the west bank is the oldest part of the city, centered on the raised platform of the Lindenhof and characterized by expensive fashion outlets and offices. Nearby rise the graceful spires both of St Peter’s, featuring the largest clock face in Europe, and the Fraumünster, a medieval church decorated in this century with beautiful stained glass by Marc Chagall. The long, curving Bahnhofstrasse follows the ancient course of the western city wall, and is now one of Europe’s most prestigious shopping streets, packed with jewelers and designer boutiques.

The best of the city’s thirty-odd museums are the marvelous Kunsthaus on the fringes of the Niederdorf, and the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum (Swiss National Museum) in a park on the west bank.