The Karlsturm view
River, lake and Alps from atop Zurich's signature.
Ilya Hirschberg (Kreecher) — CC BY-SA 4.0 · VasuVR — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Desiderius Severus — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Andrew Bossi — CC BY-SA 2.5
The Grossmünster's priest who declared from its pulpit that scripture alone ruled — abolishing mass, images and monasteries in Zurich while many had barely heard of Luther, and dying in a confessional battle in 1531. Protestant Switzerland — famous work ethic included — began from these stones.
Because the Reformation carried out every image, statue and organ in a documented 1524 'cleansing' — deeming them worship's distraction. The bareness is itself the historic relic, which is why the modern agate windows strike doubly: the only colour admitted.
Grossmünster for tower and history; Fraumünster opposite for the five famous Chagall windows (small fee); St Peter for Europe's largest clock face. All three in a ten-minute triangle round the river — one route, best towards evening.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
The Grossmünster's twin domed towers sign every Zurich skyline — a twelfth-century Romanesque church legend says Charlemagne founded where his horse knelt at the graves of city patrons Felix and Regula. From here Zwingli changed Europe: from its pulpit in 1519 he launched the Swiss Reformation with a severity that stripped every ornament — so today's interior is bare, imposing stone pierced by one colour: Giacometti's modern windows, and Sigmar Polke's glowing agate-slice panes. The climb is the visit's star: 187 steps up the Karlsturm to the city's best view — river, lake and rooftops, the Alps a wall in clear air. Five francs is Zurich's best scenery bargain.
River, lake and Alps from atop Zurich's signature.
Real glowing agate slices — Polke's glass without equal.
Where the Swiss Reformation began in 1519 — a chair that shook the continent.
Grossmünsterplatz, 8001 Zurich