Zürich Museums

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, early settlements in the area have been found dating back more than 6400 years ago and dates its permanent settlement from the founding by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum.

During the Middle Ages, Zürich gained the independent and privileged status and, in 1519, became a primary center of the Protestant Reformation in Europe.

Many museums and art galleries can be found in the city, including the Swiss National Museum and the Kunsthaus.

Museums in Zürich

Kunsthaus Zürich
Swiss National Museum
Rietberg Museum
FIFA World Football Museum
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Museum Rietberg
Zürich Tram Museum
Migros Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum for design
Museum Haus Konstruktiv
Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich
Kunsthalle Zürich
Zoological Museum, University Of Zurich
Uhrenmuseum Beyer Zürich
Nordamerika Native Museum NONAM
MoneyMuseum

Best Museums in Zürich, Switzerland

Kunsthaus Zürich

The Kunsthaus Zürich houses an outstanding art collection that spans from the Middle Ages to contemporary art, with an emphasis on Swiss art.

The museum’s collection includes works by significant artists including Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, and Henri Matisse.

The Kunsthaus Zürich holds one of the most extensive Munch collection outside of Norway. It has an extensive collection of Alberto Giacometti’s work and paintings by Monet, Picasso, Chagall, and Kokoschka.

The New York School is represented by works from Pollock, Rothko, and Newman. European and American artworks represent pop art. The Kunsthaus Zürich’s Modern Art Collection includes video installations and photographs by Fischli/Weiss and Pipilotti Rist.

Swiss National Museum

The Swiss National Museum’s building from 1898 is the historicist style of the French Renaissance city chateaus.

It is designed with dozens of towers, courts, and the park on a peninsula between the rivers Sihl and Limmat in the Old City District of Zurich.

The museum’s collection spans from prehistory through to ancient times and the Middle Ages to the 20th century.

Also, the collection of gothic art, chivalry, and a comprehensive collection of liturgical wooden sculptures, panel paintings, and carved altars, is impressive.

Rietberg Museum

The Rietberg Museum collection includes Asian, African, American, and Oceanian art. It is the only art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland.

The Rietberg Museum is situated in Rieterpark in central Zürich, and consists of several historic buildings: the Wesendonck Villa, the Remise, the Rieter Park-Villa, and the Schönberg Villa.

In 2007 a new building was opened that more than doubled the museum’s exhibition space.