398 Best Sights in Switzerland

Perched on a rocky hill at the center of the city, the relatively modest château is one of a cluster of historic buildings that made up the ancient royal court of Neuchâtel, including the Collegiale and Tour des Prisons. Until the canton joined the Swiss Confederation in 1848—uniquely, the only monarchy to do so—it was inhabited by various branches of Prussian royalty. Today, it serves as the main administrative offices of the canton, but a selection of the castle's rooms and fittings can be viewed on a guided tour, which is offered four times daily on days that the château is open to visitors. Taking the tour is the only way to visit the fascinating Roman-built Tour des Prisons,where visitors may enter the original wooden prison cells and take in stunning views from its panoramic terrace.

Dominating Nyon's hilltop over the waterfront is the Château de Nyon, a magnificent, 12th-century, multispire fortress with a terrace that takes in sweeping views of the lake and Mont Blanc. Its spacious rooms hold the collection of the Musée Historique, which traces the history of the castle inhabitants from the dukes of Savoy (1293–1536) through occupation by the Bernese (1536–1798) to reclamation by the canton after the Vaud revolution. The upper floors held prisoners until 1979, and the city council and courts met in chambers here until 1999. Exhibits throughout highlight the city's position as a renowned porcelain center. Modern-day conversions include a marriage salon and a caveau des vignerons (wine cellar) featuring wines of local growers.

Crowning Tourbillon, the higher of Sion's hills, the ruined château was built as a bishop's residence at the end of the 13th century and destroyed by fire in 1788. If you take the rugged hike up the steep hill, try to visit the tiny chapel with its ancient, layered frescoes.

In the center of the Old Town sits the turreted, mid-13th-century Château de Yverdon-les-Bains. Most of the castle is now a museum, with exhibits on locally discovered prehistoric and Roman artifacts, Egyptian art, natural history, and, of course, local history. A special room is dedicated to the famous Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), who spent 20 years here. His influential ideas on education led to school reforms at home and in Germany and England.

The fortresslike elements of this 15th-century stone cylinder certainly came into play. The castle was built for the bishops of Lausanne; during the 16th century the citizens wearied of ecclesiastical power and allied themselves with Bern and Fribourg against the bishops protected within. Before long, however, Bern itself marched on Lausanne, put a bailiff in this bishops' castle, and stripped the city fathers of their power. Today the Château St-Maire is the seat of the cantonal government.

The sober, late-Renaissance facade of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter and St. Stephen, begun in the 16th century, stands across from the Castelgrande. Its baroque interior is richly decorated with frescoes and stuccowork by a host of Ticino artists. Of particular note is the late-18th-century Crucifixion attributed to Simone Peterzano that serves as the central altar painting.

Harmonious and almost delicate, the Church of St. Francis and its convent stand cheek by jowl with the painfully bulky, modern building that houses the city's Department of Education, Culture, and Sports. The history of the parish goes back to the early 13th century, when it was allegedly founded by St. Anthony of Padua. The current church was begun in 1538, however, on the remains of earlier constructions. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the interior is the series of frescoes, which have been restored to their original splendor. Note the fine marble carvings and paintings on the side altars.

Built in the 17th century, the Church of St. Anthony stands on a small plaza in the midst of narrow streets lined with splendid old medieval and baroque houses. The baptismal font (1589) features the double coat of arms of the ancient community of Locarno, and was overlaid in bronze by local sculptor Remo Rossi.

The simple facade doesn't prepare you for the riches within. Begun in the late 15th century, the church contains a magnificent fresco of the Passion and Crucifixion, as well as the Last Supper and Madonna with the Infant Jesus, all by Bernardino Luini (1475–1532).

The earliest records of the Church of St. Mary of Grace date from the 15th century, when it was part of a Franciscan monastery. Now it's a retirement home. The church's most remarkable feature is the huge fresco painted by an unknown Lombard artist some time around 1500 on the wall segmenting the main nave. It depicts the Crucifixion in the center, surrounded by 15 vignettes from the life of Christ.

This exuberantly decorated baroque church, built in 1630, has a disproportionately large statue of St. Christopher on its facade.

One of Bellinzona's two Italianate churches, St. Biagio is a spare medieval treasure guarded on the exterior by an outsize fresco of a soldierly Christ. The 12th-century late-Romanesque structure suggests a transition into Gothic style. Alternating natural red brick and gray stone complement fragments of exquisitely colored 14th-century frescoes.

A steep and picturesque climb leads up to the Chiesa di Madonna del Sasso, with its well-preserved 16th-century frescoes. Its elevated setting affords wonderful views.

The 14th-century maps, 19th-century photographs, and St. Christopher's huge limewood head give context to the thick stone foundations of Bern's third city gate. The tower was built between 1344 and 1366 and destroyed in 1865 after a tight vote in favor of the train station. Its ruins have been incorporated into the underground shopping mall of the train station.

Originally part of a 15th-century hospital complex built outside the city to isolate victims of the plague, these verdant seven acres hold the mortal remains of Jean Calvin, Simon Rath, Guillaume-Henri Dufour, William Favre, Jorge Luis Borges, and Sergio Vieira de Mello (the United Nations special representative killed in Iraq in 2003), as well as many of the people whose names grace street signs all over town.

Always adorned with white flowers, as was her signature style, the grave of Coco Chanel lies within a large wooded cemetery park on the western edge of the city. Urban legend has it that Mademoiselle Chanel's beloved companion, her dog, is buried not far away in the pet cemetery on the grounds of the stately Beau-Rivage Palace. The cemetery is accessible by the No. 25 bus toward Bourdonnette or the Nos. 1 and 6 toward Maladière.

This singular museum focuses on the genre of fringe or "psychopathological" art, dubbed l'art brut (raw art) in the 1940s by French artist Jean Dubuffet. His own collection forms the base of this ensemble of raw material from untrained minds—prisoners, schizophrenics, or the merely obsessed. Strangely enough, the collection is housed in the Château de Beaulieu, a former mansion of Madame de Staël, she of the sophisticated salons. The exhibits range from intricate yarn and textile pieces to a wall full of whimsical seashell masks. One of the most affecting works is a panel of rough carvings made by an asylum patient in solitary confinement; it was shaped with a broken spoon and a chamber-pot handle. You can get here by walking up Avenue Vinet or by taking Bus No. 2 from Place St-François in the direction of Désert.

In fine weather the waterfront buzzes day and night—strollers, diners, concertgoers, in-line skaters, artisans selling their wares—while the white steamers that land here add to the traffic.

Saas-Fee is at the heart of a circle of mountains called the Mischabel, 13 of which tower more than 13,120 feet. Among them is the Dom (14,908 feet), the highest mountain entirely on Swiss soil.

This museum is in one of the oldest and best-kept buildings from Arosa's past—it was first mentioned in a 1550 document. Besides exhibiting the tools of the mountain farmer's difficult trade, this little museum has put together a slide show on local history. The museum building, a mid-16th-century wooden farmhouse also known as the Eggahuus, is a sight in itself.

The magnificent 11th-century Église Abbatiale, built on the site of an ancient Roman villa, is one of the finest examples of Romanesque art in Switzerland. Of particular note in its austere, restored interior is the impressively engineered barrel vaulting; the frescoes and primitive carvings on the capitals of stone pillars are also of interest. Organ concerts are frequent attractions, and exhibitions are staged in both the church and an adjoining museum.

The French influence in Neuchâtel is revealed in many monuments and in its architecture, most notably the Église Collégiale. The handsome Romanesque and Burgundian Gothic structure, with a colorful tile roof, dates from the 12th century. The church contains a strikingly realistic and well-preserved grouping of life-size painted figures called le cénotaphe. Dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, this is considered one of Europe's finest examples of medieval art. From April through September there are guided tours (usually between 10 and 4) of the Château de Neuchâtel (Neuchâtel Castle) adjoining the church; check at the château entrance to learn when the English one starts. Anyone not wanting to climb steep streets can reach the church from the Promenade Noire off the Place des Halles by an inconspicuous elevator—ascenseur publique.

This imposing 13th-century church is attached to a Franciscan friary. Its pale walls and the rose-, gray-, and alabaster-colored ceiling contrast with the Gothic darkness of the interior. A 16th-century polyptych by an anonymous Nelkenmeister, or Maître à l'Oeillet (one of a group of painters who signed their works only with red and white carnations), hangs over the high altar. A carved-wood triptych, believed to be Alsatian, and a 15th-century retable of the temptation of St. Anthony painted by the Fribourg artist Hans Fries decorate the side walls. At the entrance to the cloister leading to the friary is a 13th-century five-panel fresco depicting the birth of the Virgin Mary.

This pristine 15th-century sanctuary served as a Protestant temple, a butcher's warehouse, a foundry, and a government meeting hall before Napoléon's troops returned it to Catholicism in 1803. The second chapel on the left maps a structural lineage that began in AD 400, and the steeple dates from the 14th century. Today's whitewashed walls, strategic lighting, and stained glass frame weekly classical music concerts in summer. Attending a concert or a service (the latter occurs at 10 on Sunday) is usually your only chance to see the inside.

This genteel little apartment has been lovingly re-created to evoke the world of 1905, the miracle year in which then-tenant Albert Einstein, a badly paid, newly married young clerk in Bern's Patent Office, developed and published his Special Theory of Relativity. All signage is in German and English. Downstairs, the Einstein café & bel étage serves drinks, lunch, snacks, and desserts.

The Eispavillon combines fascinating construction with a dash of kitsch and lets you look beneath the frozen surface of the earth. More than 25 feet below the ice pack, the cavernous facility provides an impressive view of the surreal, frozen environment inside glacial formations. Bring a coat or sweater—it's literally freezing down there. There are ice sculptures, exhibits on glaciology and crevasse rescue, and even a chapel-like room for meditation, concerts, and art shows. To reach the Eis Pavillon, take the Alpin Express or Felskinn cable car up to Felskinn before switching to the underground funicular—the world's highest (prepare yourself for a drastic change in altitude).

The technical and sporting elements of hot-air ballooning that put this tiny village on the world map are highlighted at Espace Ballon, a museum and exhibition space run by professional pilots. Permanent and changing shows follow the history of avionics, challenges shared by flying enthusiasts, and flight records that have been broken by adventurers like Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, whose Breitling Orbiter set off from a nearby meadow. In addition, there are 3-D movies that take the viewer along for a ride, or you can schedule your own voyage into the thermals.

The annual hot-air ballooning festival gets off the ground in late January in a spectacle featuring more than 100 vibrant balloons. On Friday night a nightglow is held. Scramble to the top of the hill that has the church (look for the steeple) for a stunning view of brilliantly colored, backlit balloons choreographed to music. A lively village fair follows.

Once the city's tram terminal, this is one of the premier modern-art spaces in Switzerland. It houses a selection of whirring, tapping, spinning metal sculptures by Jean Tinguely and a wall full of the voluptuous, colorful work of his wife, Niki de Saint Phalle. After working in the Dadaist movement, Tinguely (1925–91) made headlines as a pioneer of the "kinetic art" movement. Kids (16 and under free) are often fascinated by Tinguely's work, which is full of fantastical elements: skis are walking, a potted plant is turning, and a toy rabbit is being hit on the head.

Saas-Fee lies in a deep valley that leaves no doubt about its source—it seems to pour from the vast, intimidating Fee Glacier. "Fee" can be translated as "fairy," and this primordial landscape could illustrate a fairy tale. See it up close by taking a gondola up to Spielboden and then a cable car to Längfluh, right on the glacier's edge, where there's a restaurant with magnificent glacial views.