Zurich has a reputation for banks and order, but its old town is a warm, walkable place of crooked lanes, painted guild houses and church towers reflected in a fast green river. This walk makes a loop of it, starting at the castle-like national museum behind the main station, crossing to the lively Niederdorf on the east bank, then over the Limmat between the city's two great churches, up to a leafy Roman hilltop and down to the grand shopping street of Bahnhofstrasse. It is only about two kilometers, so you can take it slowly, and it ends close to where it began. Of all the self-guided walking tours in Switzerland, few pack this much history into so short a distance.

Before you set off

Allow about an hour and a half at a gentle pace, and more if you step inside the churches, which you should. The route is mostly flat along the river, with two short climbs, one up to the Grossmünster and one up to Lindenhof, both easy. The old town is paved with cobbles and flagstones that get slippery in the rain, so wear shoes with some grip. Zurich is lovely in the morning, when the lanes of the Niederdorf are quiet and the light falls on the river; the east bank comes alive in the evening, when its bars and restaurants fill up. Bring an empty water bottle, because the city's many public fountains run with clean, cold drinking water and you can fill up as you go. The Fraumünster charges a small entry fee and the Grossmünster tower has its own small fee to climb, and opening hours for both vary through the year, so check before you go. Zurich is not a cheap city, but the walk itself costs nothing, and a coffee by the river is worth every franc.

Landesmuseum

You start in front of the Landesmuseum, the Swiss National Museum, and it is hard to miss: a fairy-tale castle of towers, turrets and steep roofs, standing right behind the main railway station. It looks medieval, but it opened in 1898, built to look like the old castles, town halls and churches of Switzerland because it was meant to hold the story of the whole country. Inside you will find everything from carved altarpieces and painted rooms to armor, weapons and everyday objects from across the centuries. Walk around to the back and you will see how the old building meets its newer wing, a bold extension of pale, perforated concrete that opened in 2016 and divided opinion the way new architecture always does in an old city. Beyond the museum is Platzspitz, a triangle of park at the point where the rivers Sihl and Limmat meet. Today it is a peaceful place with old trees and benches, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was known around the world as Needle Park, home to an open drug scene that the city finally closed down in 1992. To continue, walk to the Limmat in front of the station, cross the wide Bahnhofbrücke to the east bank, then turn right into Niederdorfstrasse, the pedestrian lane heading south, about eight minutes in all.

Niederdorf Lanes

You are in the Niederdorf, the lower village, the old town on the east bank of the river, which locals affectionately call the Dörfli. The main lane, Niederdorfstrasse, runs south between tall, narrow houses with painted shutters and old signs hanging over the doors, and little alleys climb away from it uphill to your left. This was a district of craftsmen and small traders, and its houses go back centuries, many of them rebuilt on medieval foundations. Today the ground floors hold bakeries, bookshops, cheese shops and plenty of places for fondue, and at night the Niederdorf is the liveliest part of the city. Look out for the fountains with their stone basins and painted figures; they are part of a network of more than a thousand public fountains all over Zurich. Keep walking south and you will come to Spiegelgasse, a lane climbing to your left, and it has a remarkable history. During the First World War, neutral Zurich was full of exiles, and in 1916 a group of artists opened the Cabaret Voltaire at the bottom of this lane and gave birth to Dada, the art movement that tried to make nonsense out of a world gone mad. A few doors up the same lane lived a Russian revolutionary called Lenin, who left in 1917 for Russia and the revolution. Continue south along the main lane for about six minutes, until the twin towers of the Grossmünster rise ahead.

Grossmünster

grossmunster towers zurich Before you rise the twin towers of the Grossmünster, the Great Minster, the symbol of Zurich. According to legend, the city's patron saints, Felix and Regula, were Christians executed by the Romans down by the river, who then picked up their own heads and walked up the hill to this spot, where they were buried. Centuries later, the story goes, the horse of Charlemagne himself knelt over their grave, and he founded a church here. Look up at the southern tower and you will see him, a seated stone figure with a crown and a sword across his knees, though the original statue is kept safe in the crypt and this one is a copy. The present church was built in the Romanesque style from around 1100, and its towers got their rounded tops in the late eighteenth century after a fire. But the most important figure in the history of this building is Huldrych Zwingli, who began preaching here in 1519 and led the Reformation in Zurich, stripping the churches of their images and changing the course of the country. The inside is plain as a result, but look for the stained glass by Augusto Giacometti and the much newer windows by Sigmar Polke, some made from thin slices of agate. You can climb one of the towers for a view over the roofs and the lake. Then walk down the steps toward the river to the bridge right below you.