The story of Grossmünster

Legend says Charlemagne founded this church after his horse fell to its knees over the tombs of Felix, Regula and Exuperantius, the patron saints of Zürich. Archaeology confirms a Roman burial ground on the site. The present Romanesque church was begun around 1100 and inaugurated around 1220. But its greatest story came later.

From 1520 Huldrych Zwingli preached here and launched the Swiss-German Reformation. In 1524 the reformers removed the organ and the statues, which is why the interior is so plain today. Look up at the twin towers, perhaps Zürich's best-known landmark.

Built between 1487 and 1492, they once had tall wooden steeples that burned in 1763; the present tops were completed in 1787. Richard Wagner mocked them as two pepper pots. Inside you will find stained-glass windows by Augusto Giacometti from 1932 and bronze doors by Otto Münch. The naturalist Conrad Gessner rests in the cloister.