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What to see in Zurich on foot
17 sights worth the detour, all walkable, all offline.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Zurich offline.
Zurich is a city made for walking. This self-guided guide maps 17 of its sights worth the detour — landmarks, historic sites, museums and galleries and parks and gardens — the places locals point to and the tour buses skip, close enough to string into a single day on foot. Download the Zurich pack in Voyage GO before you go and the whole route works offline: no roaming, no dead battery from a live map. Every monument, viewpoint and park you pass quietly fills your travel passport.
Landmarks6
- 1LetzigrundOn this track, on 21 June 1960, Armin Hary became the first person in history to run 100 metres in 10.0 seconds.
- 2Zürich HauptbahnhofSwitzerland's largest station runs 2,915 trains a day — and a river flows through it in a tunnel, with tracks both above and below.
- 3Zürich Opera HouseThe first electrically lit opera house in Europe — built in 16 months, nearly razed by street riots, and winner of Opera Company of the Year at the 2014 International Opera Awards.
- 4HallenstadionAn 11,200-seat arena designed by Bruno Giacometti in 1939 that has hosted ice hockey world championships, a Federer–Nadal charity match, and a Dalai Lama lecture series — Zürich's most unlikely all-rounder.
- 5Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)Switzerland's largest arts university traces its roots to an 1878 craft school — and the building it inherited still houses the Museum of Design.
- 6A4 MotorwayThe highway that carries you from Germany's doorstep, across the Rhine, through vineyard country, and into the Swiss heartland in one unbroken run.
Historic Sites6
- 7GrossmünsterThe church where Zwingli launched the Swiss-German Reformation in 1520 — and then his followers stripped out the organ and every statue to prove the point.
- 8Cabaret VoltaireHugo Ball borrowed a back room on Spiegelgasse in February 1916 and accidentally invented Dada — Lenin was renting a flat fourteen doors up the same street.
- 9Hardturm Stadium SiteA 1954 World Cup pitch in Kreis 5 — demolished, redevelopment stalled, memory intact.
- 10FraumünsterFor centuries the abbess here appointed Zurich's mayor, collected its tolls, and minted its coins — then Marc Chagall came along in 1970.
- 11Fluntern Cemetery (Friedhof Fluntern)James Joyce crossed Europe to write in Zurich — and never left.
- 12St. Peter Church, ZürichThat clock face is 8.7 metres wide — the largest on any church in Europe — and until 1911 someone stood watch inside the steeple scanning for fires.
Museums & Galleries4
- 13Kunsthaus ZürichTwo buildings on opposite sides of Heimplatz, linked underground, housing one of Switzerland's most important art collections — the 2021 David Chipperfield sandstone block alone added over 80% more floor space.
- 14Swiss National Museum (Landesmuseum)A French Renaissance chateau with dozens of towers sits on a river peninsula two minutes from the main train station — and it covers all of Swiss history from the Stone Age forward.
- 15Foundation E.G. Bührle CollectionOne of Europe's finest Impressionist collections — funded by 623 million francs in weapons sales to Hitler's army.
- 16Museum RietbergSwitzerland's largest collection of non-European art — spread across 19th-century villas in a city park, then drops underground into a largely subterranean extension.
Parks & Gardens1
- 17Zürich ZooThe only zoo in Europe to breed Galápagos tortoises — and it has been shipping hatchlings to two dozen institutions ever since.
