Eastern Switzerland
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Eastern Switzerland - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Ebenalp
The northernmost peak of the Appenzeller Alps, the 5,380-foot Ebenalp is accessible via cable car from Wasserrauen, 7 km (4 miles) south of Appenzell. At the top is an easy hike that connects to other trails that lead to a mountain lake or loop back to the cable car. Also here is the Wildkirchli, a cave that was home to humans in the Paleolithic era and today houses a large bear skeleton that dates back 90,000 years. Five minutes farther along the trail is the Berggastaus Aescher-Wildkirchli, a mountainside restaurant with eye-popping views of the valley below.
Schwendetalstr. 82, Wasserauen, Appenzell Innerrhoden, 9057, Switzerland071-7991212Sight Details
Rate Includes: SF34 round-trip -
2. Kathedrale
The cathedral is an impressive sight. Begun in 1755 and completed in 1766, it is the antithesis of the decadent Abbey Library nearby, although the nave and rotunda are the work of the same architect, Peter Thumb. The scale is outsized and the decor light, bright, and open, despite spectacular excesses of wedding-cake trim.
Klosterhof 6a, St. Gallen, Saint Gallen, 9000, Switzerland071-2273333 -
3. Mt. Säntis
For a pleasurable high-altitude excursion out of Appenzell southwest to the hamlet of Schwägalp, you can ride a cable car that departs every 30 minutes up to the peak of Mt. Säntis. At 8,209 feet, it is the highest in the region, with beautiful views of the Bodensee as well as of the Graubünden and Bernese Alps. The very shape of the summit—an arc of jutting rock that swings up to the jagged peak housing the station—is spectacular.
Schwägalp, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, 9107, Switzerland071-3656565Sight Details
Rate Includes: SF54 round-trip -
4. Münster zu Allerheiligen
This beautiful cathedral, along with its cloister and grounds, dominates the lower city. Founded in 1049, the original cathedral was dedicated in 1064, and the larger one that stands today was built in 1103. Its interior has been restored to Romanesque austerity with a modern aesthetic (hanging architect's lamps, Scandinavian-style pews). The cloister, begun in 1050, combines Romanesque and later-Gothic elements. Memorial plates on the inside wall honor noblemen and civic leaders buried in the cloister's central garden. You'll also pass through the aromatic herb garden, so beautiful that you may feel you've stepped into a tapestry. The centerpiece of the main courtyard, the cathedral's enormous Schiller Bell, was cast in 1486; it hung in the tower of the cathedral until 1895. Its inscription, vivos—voco/mortuos—plango/fulgura—frango ("I call the living, mourn the dead, stop the lightning"), allegedly inspired the German poet Friedrich von Schiller to write his "Lied von der Glocke" ("Song of the Bell").
Klosterpl. 1, Schaffhausen, Schaffhausen, 8200, SwitzerlandSight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
5. Napoleon Museum Thurgau
In the village of Salenstein, the Napoleon Museum is housed in a magnificent villa given to the municipality by Empress Eugénie of France in homage to her husband, Napoléon III, who grew up here with his mother, Hortense, sister-in-law of Napoléon I. Today the Schloss Arenenberg serves as a museum, and lovers of decorative arts will prize its ravishing period rooms dating from the Second Empire. Outside is a glorious park studded with ancestral statues as well as a separate seminar center with a small café.
off Arenenbergstr., Salenstein, Thurgau, 8268, Switzerland058-3457410Sight Details
Rate Includes: SF15, Closed Mon. mid-Oct.–Mar. -
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6. Rheinfall
The Rheinfall is 492 feet wide, drops some 75 feet in a series of three dramatic leaps, and is split at the center by a bushy crag straight out of a 19th-century landscape painting. The effect—mist, roaring water, jutting rocks—is positively Wagnerian. Goethe saw in the falls the "ocean's source," although today's jaded globe-trotters have been known to find them "cute." A visitor center at the nearby Schloss Laufen includes a souvenir shop, restaurant, playground, and new bridge walkway that lets you see, hear, and get sprayed by the falls.
Rheinfallquai 32, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Schaffhausen, 8212, SwitzerlandSight Details
Rate Includes: SF5 to hike down the falls under Schloss Laufen; otherwise free, From Schaffhausen, the S33 or S9 train takes you to the Rheinfall in 5 mins -
7. Stiftsbibliothek
Although the abbey was largely destroyed in the Reformation and closed down altogether in 1805, its library, built between 1758 and 1767, still holds a collection of more than 170,000 books and manuscripts. To visit the library hall, one of Switzerland's treasures, you are given gray felt slippers to protect the magnificently inlaid wood flooring. The hall is a gorgeous explosion of gilt, frescoes, undulating balconies, and luminously burnished woodwork, mostly walnut and cherry. Its contents, including 1,200-year-old manuscripts, constitute one of the world's oldest and finest scholarly collections. Also on display, incongruously, is an Egyptian mummy dating from about 650 BC. Not to be missed is the giant globe representing the world in 1570, with grossly misproportioned continents. The original was stolen by Zürich about 300 years ago, and in 2009 this reproduction was given to St. Gallen in lieu of the original.
Klosterhof 6d, St. Gallen, Saint Gallen, 9000, Switzerland071-2273416Sight Details
Rate Includes: SF18, Closed mid-Nov.–early Dec.
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