60 Fun Facts About Zurich

Which river flows out of Lake Zurich through the city centre?

The Sihl joins it at the tip of the Platzspitz park by the National Museum.

Is Zurich the capital of Switzerland?

It was briefly federal capital in 1839–40 and 1845–46 under the old rotating system.

What did the Romans call Zurich?

It was a customs post collecting a 2.5 percent tax on goods moving along the Limmat.

On which small hill did the Romans build their castellum in the city centre?

It remains the geographic and historic centre, on the west bank of the Limmat.

Which Carolingian king founded the Fraumünster abbey in 853 for his daughter?

In 1045 the abbess was granted markets, tolls and a mint, effectively ruling the city.

In what year did Zurich become the fifth member of the Old Swiss Confederacy?

Guild rule had been established in 1336.

Who launched the Swiss Reformation as chief preacher at the Grossmünster in 1519?

His first public controversy attacked fasting during Lent.

Where did Zwingli die in 1531?

Catholic cantons attacked after his alliance imposed a food blockade.

According to legend, whose horse knelt over the graves of Zurich's patron saints, prompting the Grossmünster?

The saints were Felix, Regula and Exuperantius.

Which artist designed the five stained-glass windows in the Fraumünster choir, installed in 1970?

The church organ, with 6,959 pipes, is the largest in the canton.

What was Bahnhofstrasse called before it was laid out in 1867?

The name means Ditch of the Frogs; it had been the city moat.

How long is Bahnhofstrasse from the station to Bürkliplatz?

A 2011 study ranked it Europe's most expensive retail street and third worldwide.

Which mountain, at 869 metres, is the highest point around Zurich?

Its summit is reached by the Uetlibergbahn.

How many districts, or Kreise, is the city of Zurich divided into?

Kreis 1 is the Altstadt on both banks of the Limmat.

What is the traditional spring holiday at which Zurich's guilds parade and burn a snowman?

The effigy has been burned officially since 1902.

What is the effigy of winter burned at the April guild festival called?

The word is cognate with bogey; the doll now represents winter itself.

On which day is the guild parade and effigy-burning usually held?

The name means the six o'clock ringing of the bells.

Which art movement was founded at Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire in 1916?

It opened at Spiegelgasse 1 in February 1916.

Which revolutionary lived at Spiegelgasse 14, a few doors from Cabaret Voltaire, from 1916?

He moved in sixteen days after the cabaret opened and left for Russia in April 1917.

Who founded Cabaret Voltaire?

It closed in the summer of 1916 but was revived in the same building this century.

How many Nobel laureates are associated with ETH Zurich?

Albert Einstein is the most famous of them.

In which year did the Swiss federal government found ETH Zurich?

Its sister institution is EPFL in Lausanne.

What distinction in Europe does the University of Zurich of 1833 claim?

It is Switzerland's largest university, with about 28,700 students.

Which world sports body is headquartered in Zurich?

Its new headquarters, designed by Tilla Theus, opened in 2007.

Which Zurich football side, founded in 1886, holds the record of 27 Swiss league titles?

Its city rival FC Zürich was founded ten years later.

What is the Weltklasse Zürich athletics meeting nicknamed?

As many as 24 world records have been set at the Letzigrund.

Roughly how many people attend Zurich's Street Parade techno festival?

It began in 1992 as a demonstration for love, peace, liberty, generosity and tolerance.

Who initiated the first Street Parade in September 1992?

The parade runs along the northern edge of Lake Zurich each August.

The chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli is based in which lakeside town just south of Zurich?

Its main factory and museum are there; the Sprünglis had moved to Paradeplatz in 1845.

Whose disparaging phrase gnomes of Zurich for Swiss bankers came out of a British crisis meeting in 1964?

They feared speculation against the pound; the phrase stuck.

Which Irish novelist worked on Ulysses in Zurich during World War I and is buried at Fluntern?

He died in the city in 1941.

Which two of the city's institutions are the largest and busiest of their kind in Switzerland?

There are 28 operational railway stations within the city.

In which municipality does Zurich Airport partly lie?

It is about 8 km north of the city centre.

Which traditional Zurich dish is sliced veal in a cream sauce?

Tirggel, a hard honey biscuit, is the city's other traditional speciality.

Zurich was ranked the world's third most expensive city behind which two?

Singapore came fourth.

What is the local dialect spoken in the city called?

In dialect the city's name is simply Züri.

Which two exiled writers found a home at the Schauspielhaus Zürich?

The theatre premiered works by Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

Whose busts adorn the portico of the Zurich Opera House?

The annual Opera Ball raises funds for the opera and ballet companies.

What is the name of the rainforest dome at Zurich Zoo, a top attraction with the elephants?

The zoo opened in 1929, the third oldest in Switzerland.

Which target-shooting competition for Zurich teenagers admitted girls only from 1991?

The name means boys' shooting.

How many people lived in the municipality of Zurich at the end of 2024?

The urban area holds 1.45 million and the metro area 2.1 million.

Which US tech company runs a European hub in the city with about 5,000 staff?

Financial giants UBS, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance are headquartered in the city too.

Which two Zurich stadium events of 1954 and 2008 were tournaments the city co-hosted?

The Euro 2008 games were played at the rebuilt Letzigrund.

Which three powers signed a treaty in the city in 1859?

It ended the Second Italian War of Independence.

The oldest café in Zurich bears what name?

Kronenhalle and the vegetarian Hiltl are among the city's other famous restaurants.

Who was Zurich's first mayor not nominated by the abbess, having introduced guild rule in 1336?

The abbess's political power waned steadily through the 14th century.

The Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn of 1847, the first railway on Swiss soil, linked Zurich with which town?

It made Zürich Hauptbahnhof the starting point of the whole Swiss rail network.

Zurich's Platzspitz became notorious for its open drug scene in the 1980s under what nickname?

The open drug scene there led Zurich to pioneer harm-reduction measures such as safe injection rooms in the 1990s.

Which Chinese city has been Zurich's twin town since 1982, its longest such partnership?

The city's Chinese Garden was a thank-you gift from Kunming for Zurich's help with its water supply and drainage.

At the end of 2024, roughly what share of Zurich's residents held foreign citizenship?

An even larger share, 44.6%, were foreign-born, reflecting the city's role as a global business hub.

Zurich sits at the northern tip of its lake roughly how far north of the Alps?

The city lies 408 metres above sea level, tucked between wooded hills to the west and east.

Which two colours make up the divided shield on Zurich's coat of arms?

The arms date to the 14th century and were adopted by the canton in 1803, with the city adding a mural crown.

Which illuminated manuscript of medieval German poetry was completed in Zurich around 1300?

Commissioned by the Manesse family, it has been called the most beautifully illuminated German manuscript in centuries.

Who printed the Zurich Bible in 1531?

The Reformation Zwingli began at the Grossmünster reshaped both church and civic life in the city.

In 2017, a woman who died around 200 BC was found in Aussersihl buried in what?

She was about 40 years old and was unearthed during construction work at a school complex.

Kreis 5, a former industrial area redeveloped into upscale housing, is known by what name?

It lies between the Limmat and the tracks leaving the main station; Kreis 4 next door is Aussersihl.

How many councillors sit on Zurich's executive City Council, the Stadtrat?

Each presides over a department, and the body operates as a collegiate authority.

In which year did the canton of Zurich finally recognise Jewish communities as legal entities?

The Löwenstrasse synagogue is the city's oldest and largest, serving a community steady at about 1% since 1970.

Which magazine's 2012 survey ranked Zurich the world's best city 'to make a base within'?

Mercer has also repeatedly placed Zurich at or near the top of its global quality-of-living rankings.

Which European conflict prompted Zurich to build a second ring of fortifications in 1624?

The costly walls were paid for by squeezing subject territories, which sparked revolts.