Switzerland Guide
Zürich
The Grossmünster
With its distinctive twin sugar-loafed towers, and a venerable history at the heart of the Swiss-German Reformation, the Grossmünster, or Great Minster, dominates Zürich's skyline. In a tight-packed city of generally modest, small-scale architecture, it is dauntingly gigantic; and yet, caught half a millennium ago in the eye of a tight-lipped theological hurricane, its interior has been denuded of virtually all its decorative grandeur. Today it's as bare as a cellar inside, but the beauty – as the Reformers would have wanted – is all in its lofty austerity, and its associations.
The church was constructed in its present form between 1100 and 1230. At that time, the north tower was higher than its twin, since it held, and still holds, the bells. In the fifteenth century, the south tower was brought up to the same height. After a fire in 1763, the spires and upper sections of the towers were demolished, and reconstruction shortly after produced the Gothic belfries, watchrooms and octagonal cupolae which survive today.
The building is skewed from the river bank, its broad front facing northwest. The most impressive approach is across paved Zwingliplatz, with the main North Portal featuring capitals adorned with animals, birds and, on the extreme left, a fiddle player. To the right, at the base of the North Tower, is a modern statue of Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli's successor.
Inside, the overriding impression is of the loftiness of the galleried space and its austerity; aside from some capitals decorated with battle scenes almost no decoration survives. The stained-glass windows were made in 1933 by Augusto Giacometti and stand alone for their artistic accomplishment. It's worth ducking into the crypt, a long triple-aisled hall, the largest of its kind in Switzerland, dominated by the fifteenth-century statue of Charlemagne taken from the South Tower (the one up there now is a replica) and also featuring some well-preserved brush wall drawings dating from 1500. You can climb the 187 steps of the 62-metre South Tower for a spectacular view over the city (March– Oct daily 9.15am–5pm; Fr.2).
Opening time: Daily 9am–6pm; Nov– Feb 10am–5pm
Website: www.kirche-zh.ch