Zurich - West of the Limmat

At Höschgasse 3 is the Bellerive Museum, with temporary exhibitions of craftwork from the Zurich Museum of Arts and Crafts (textiles, glass, ceramics). Of particular interest are exhibits in art nouveau style, modern Swiss ceramics, and musical instruments from the Hug collection.

In the basement of No. 31 Bahnhofstasse can be seen a comprehensive collection of timepieces belonging to the Beyer watch and clock business. The exhibits range from sun, oil and water-clocks to Swiss clocks with wooden wheels and Nuremberg pendulum clocks. There are also automata, navigational instruments and clocks from the Far East.

The main railroad station (Hauptbahnhof), built 1865-1871 on the site of Zurich's old station, is still equal to present-day needs. On its south side is the Bahnhofplatz, now reserved exclusively for traffic. In the square can be seen a monument (1990) to the Swiss statesman Alfred Escher (died 1882) by R. Kissing. Beneath the square is a pedestrian concourse with a modern shopping area ("Shopville"). The west facade of the station is being given an artistic "facelift". On the north side of the station is the Air Terminal (buses to Zurich airport 20 minutes).

Northwest of the Zurich railroad station on the left bank of the Sihl, at Ausstellungsstrasse 60, is the Museum of Decorative Arts (Kunstgewerbemuseum) which, from time to time, puts on special exhibitions of graphic art, design, architecture and applied art. The museum has drawings and prints from the 16th C. to the present day (including book-illustrations, commercial art, popular art) and a notable collection of posters with some 70,000 examples, including posters by Toulouse-Lautrec.

In the lower part of Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse lies the Paradeplatz, with the palatial headquarters of the Schweizerischen Kreditanstalt (1876) and the Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville, built in 1838 and reconstructed in 1978. In the 18th C., there was a cattle market on the Paradeplatz and, later, as its name suggests, it was used as a parade ground.

Behind the Swiss National Museum in Zurich we find the Platzpromenade, a public garden on the triangular spit of land between the Limmat and its tributary the Sihl. To the northwest extends the city's large industrial zone.

To the west of Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse, extending to the Sihlporte, is a district containing many commercial offices and the Börse (Stock Exchange). To the east, towards the Limmat, is the "Kleine Stadt" ("Little Town"), the western half of the old town.

Towards the upper end of Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse, on the corner of Uraniastrasse, stands the Urania Observatory and, to the west, are the Pestalozzi gardens with a bronze statue (1899) of the famous pedagogue Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827).