7 Best Sights in Zürich, Switzerland

On the site of this quiet square, overlooking both sides of the river, a Roman customhouse and fortress and a Carolingian palace once stood. It's believed that Hallstatt-era Celts first built the site from glacial remains and turned it into a fortified oppidum long before the Romans took over. The fountain was erected in 1912, commemorating the day in 1292 when Zürich's women saved the city from the Habsburgs. As the story goes, the town was on the brink of defeat as the Habsburg aggressors moved in. Determined to avoid this humiliation, the town's women donned armor and marched to the Lindenhof. On seeing them, the enemy thought they were faced with another army and promptly beat a strategic retreat. Today, the scene could hardly be less martial, as locals play bocce and chess under the trees, and visitors snap beautiful panoramas.

Dancing Indian Shivas, contemplative Tibetan thangkas, late 18th-century literary paintings from China, and royal Benin bronzes from Nigeria—these are just a few of the treasures in the prodigious gathering of non-European art on view. This is the only museum of its kind in Switzerland, with the main focus on Asia, Africa, and ancient America. The main collection is on view in the huge underground Smaragd building. The Villa Wesendonck, the famous neoclassical jewel that was once a fabled home to Richard Wagner (it was for the lady of the house that he wrote his Wesendonck Songs), houses objects from India, the pre-Columbian Americas, Australia, and the Pacific Islands; there's more Indian, Islamic, and Asian art in an adjacent museum, the Park-Villa Rieter.

An original neo-Gothic building dating from 1889 paired with a new sculptural wing comprises the Swiss National Museum, which displays an enormous collection of objects dating from the Stone Age to modern times. There's an excellent family exhibition with magic carpets, pirates, and models of the old-world Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn that connected Zurich with nearby Baden in the 1800s. It also has a library, bistro, and gift shop. A renovation in 2019 gave the museum a fresh look and an outdoor courtyard connecting it to the Limmat River.

This historic 19th-century wooden badi (lido) on Lake Zürich is arguably the city’s most popular summer hangout. Perfectly placed on the sun-kissed Goldküste (Gold Coast), it’s a charming and inclusive spot bursting with local character, where swimmers glide alongside SUP boarders and swans. The bathhouse itself dates back to 1890 and is today divided into three sections: men-only (especially popular with gay men), women-only, and a mixed section popular with couples and families. It’s also equipped with a diving board, hot showers, a book box with free reading material, and a café and bar where you can start your morning with a hot coffee and cold lake plunge followed by a bowl of Birchermüesli. Or wait for the midday crowds to disperse around 5 pm and sip a glass of rosé during sunset.

One of Switzerland's most delicate late-Gothic structures, this church displays stained glass by Augusto Giacometti. Both the church and the Helmhaus stand on what was once an island where martyrs Felix and Regula supposedly lost their heads.

This is one of Europe's outstanding zoos, with more than 1,500 animals, including Asian elephants, black rhinos, seals, and big cats. Two of the more unusual attractions are a huge dome stocked with flora and small free-range fauna you might encounter in a jungle in Madagascar, including lemurs and the endangered Bernier's teal; and the elephant park, Kaeng Krachan, which allows you to see the elephants swim underwater, every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday morning at 10:15. Set in a tree-filled park, the zoo is just east of the city center and easily reached by Trams 5 and 6. 

Engaging and high-tech, the Zoological Museum allows you a close look at more than 1,500 animals from around the world. Its accessible displays cover Swiss insects, birds, and amphibians, and you can examine butterflies and living water creatures through microscopes or listen to birdcalls as you compare avian markings. On the ground floor there is a vault containing 50 fossil specimens.