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Zurich guide

Four Churches Around the Limmat in Zurich's Old Town

From the twin towers of the Grossmünster down to the river church, across the Limmat to the Fraumünster and up to St. Peter. A route for first-time visitors who want the Reformation and the old town in one loop.

Zurich's old town is small, and its story is told by four churches within sight of each other. Two stand on the east bank, two on the west, and the Limmat runs between them. This route follows the river and climbs once, at the end.

The twin towers

Start at the Grossmünster, whose two towers are the shape you will see from every bridge in town. Building began around 1100, and the church was inaugurated around 1220. In 1520 Huldrych Zwingli began the Swiss-German Reformation from its pulpit, and four years later the organ and the statues were taken out. Stand at the foot of the towers and look up: their neo-Gothic tops date from 1787, after a fire in 1763 destroyed the wooden spires.

Grossmünster
GrossmünsterPlace of worshipGo inside: the church is plain on purpose, and Augusto Giacometti's stained glass from 1932 is the colour in it. The cloister next door is worth a look too. It now holds a Reformation museum. Leave downhill towards the river.Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0

The church on the water

Down at the river, the Wasserkirche stands on a small island in the Limmat, which is how it got its name. A medieval tradition places the execution of the city's martyrs Felix and Regula on this spot. After the Reformation it stopped being a church, and in 1634 it became Zurich's first public library.

Wasserkirche
WasserkirchePlace of worshipStop at the water's edge and read the building as a library for a moment, a role it kept until 1917. Services are held here again today. Inside, a crypt keeps the so-called martyr stone. Cross the Limmat by the nearest bridge.Photo: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0

Chagall on the far bank

On the west side, the Fraumünster grew out of a convent for noblewomen that King Louis the German set up in 853 for his daughter Hildegard. The abbey was dissolved in 1524. What draws visitors now is the light: Marc Chagall's five windows in the choir, installed in 1970, each built around one dominant colour.

Fraumünster
FraumünsterPlace of worshipGo in and head for the choir to see the Chagall windows, then look for Augusto Giacometti's tall window in the north transept, from 1940. In the former cloister, Paul Bodmer's paintings show Zurich's saints Felix, Regula and Exuperantius. Then walk uphill into the lanes behind the church.Photo: sidonius 12:59, 4 June 2006 (UTC), CC BY-SA 2.5

The clock and the hill

The climb ends at St. Peter. Its tower, raised to 64 metres in 1450, carries a clock face of more than eight metres across, one of the biggest in Europe. The mayor Rudolf Brun, the town's first independent one, was buried here in 1360.

St. Peter
St. PeterPlace of worshipStand under the clock and look up, then step inside. The current building was consecrated in 1706 and was the first church built under Protestant rule. The small square outside is a good place to sit before heading back down to the river.Photo: Juerg.hug, CC BY-SA 3.0

Each church here shows a different chapter: a medieval foundation, a Reformation pulpit, an abbey turned into a gallery of glass, and a hilltop tower with a very large clock. Walk back down to the Limmat and you will have crossed all of it.