A building in the river
Founded in the Limmat, it seems to rise from the water.
roland zh — CC BY-SA 3.0 · David Herrliberger; upload by sidonius 11:27, 5 April 2008 (UTC) — Public domain · JoachimKohler-HB — CC BY-SA 4.0 · DXR — CC BY-SA 4.0
Not as an individual visitor. The building is shut ahead of a full restoration, both the cantonal and city chambers have moved to a temporary building away from the centre, and what remains are tours for organised groups by prior arrangement. Treat it as a photograph from the bridge rather than an interior to tour, and give the time instead to the Grossmünster, the Fraumünster or the nearby Swiss National Museum.
The Rathaus (1698) is on the right bank and holds the legislature: the cantonal parliament and the city parliament. The **Stadthaus** stands on the left bank near the Fraumünster and is the seat of the city's executive government. Both translate into Arabic as "town hall", which is why they are so often confused. In practice both are exterior sights only, and they are two minutes and one bridge apart.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
The Rathaus is a restrained baroque building put up between **1694 and 1698** in the heart of the old town, and its neatest trick is that it does not stand on land at all: its foundation is anchored **in the bed of the Limmat itself**, so from the bridge opposite it appears to rise straight out of the water. A thirteenth-century courthouse and then a council building of 1397 stood here before it; until 1798 it was the seat of government of the Republic of Zurich, and since 1803 it has belonged to the canton. It houses two parliaments under one roof: the **cantonal parliament of Zurich and the city parliament** — the legislatures, not the city's executive government, which sits in the Stadthaus on the opposite bank. Its regular windows, ornamented portal and carved lions make a clean example of sober Swiss baroque, nothing like the exuberance of Austria or Bavaria. ⚠ Today, though, the visit is **entirely from outside**: the building is closed to individual visitors, and both chambers have moved to a temporary building (the "Rathaus Hard") away from the centre ahead of a full restoration that has been delayed by a legal dispute over heritage protection. The best view is from the Rathaus bridge or the quay opposite — a few minutes on an old-town walk, not a stop in its own right.
Founded in the Limmat, it seems to rise from the water.
Cantonal and city legislatures — not the executive.
The best angle for a photograph, and the historic market spot.
Limmatquai 55, 8001 Zurich