The giant clock
A 5.7-metre minute hand visible from far off.
Juerg.hug — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Roland zh — CC BY-SA 4.0 · BrianMeyer09 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · roland zh — CC BY-SA 3.0
From the church's own square you are too close and end up tilting the camera until the lines skew. Better from the neighbouring **Lindenhof** terrace, or from the far bank of the Limmat by the nearby bridges, where tower, clock and old-town roofs sit in one frame. The light is better in the afternoon.
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This is Zurich's oldest parish church site: excavations beneath the choir have traced a church of the eighth or ninth century, and before the Reformation it was **the town's only parish church** — everything else belonged to monasteries. The present building was consecrated in 1706, the first church built in Zurich under Protestant rule, which is why the interior is white, plain and almost entirely without ornament, unlike what visitors expect of a European church. The star here is outside rather than inside: **the largest church clock face in Europe**, roughly 8.7 metres across, with a 5.7-metre minute hand and a 5-metre hour hand. The tower belongs to the city of Zurich rather than to the parish — because until 1911 it housed a fire watchman who scanned the rooftops and raised the alarm. Set into the church wall is the gravestone of the preacher Johann Caspar Lavater, pastor here from 1778 to 1801. Entry is free and a quarter of an hour covers it. The church sits in the heart of the old town directly below the **Lindenhof** terrace, and its small paved square is one of the quietest corners of the centre. ⚠ The tower is not open to walk-up visitors and can only be seen on an occasional guided tour — for a view from height, the nearby **Grossmünster** tower is the one to go up.
A 5.7-metre minute hand visible from far off.
City-owned, and manned by a watchman until 1911.
Zurich's first post-Reformation church, 1706.
St. Peterhofstatt, 8001 Zurich