Zürich

Overview

Zurich (better: Zürich), located 409 meters above sea level at the northern end of the Lake of Zürich on the Swiss central plateau, is charming and multilateral. Its well-preserved Old Town lies on both banks of the River Limmat, which flows out of the lake in a northerly direction. With a population of 360,000, Zürich is the largest city in Switzerland. The canton of the same name hosts 1.1 million inhabitants and is thus the country's most densely populated canton.

Zürich was founded as a Roman customs post on the site of what is now Lindenhof in the year 15 B.C. From the 10th century onwards, it enjoyed the status of a town, and in 1218 was granted the rights of a free city. Rudolf Brun introduced a guild constitution after the downfall of the government in 1336. In 1351, the city joined the Everlasting League of the Confederates. After that, it has grown increasingly in importance, especially under the rule of Mayor Hans Waldmann (15th century). 1519 saw the beginning of the Reformation under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli. During the 19th century, Alfred Escher transformed Zürich into a trade and business centre (machine and textile industry, banks, insurance companies, tourism), not in the least because of the founding of the Zürich Stock Exchange in 1877. This gave the city the fourth rank on the world's list and made it into what it still is: Switzerland's most important business centre and the world's gold trading centre.

The Old Town consists of...more

History