Sights in Switzerland
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Kunstmuseum
The Kunstmuseum concentrates on two periods: from 1400 to 1600, and from 1800 to the present day. The medieval collection includes the world’s largest number of Holbein works. The smaller contemporary collection features Picassos and Rodins.
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Santuario della Madonna del Sasso
Overlooking the town, this sanctuary was built after the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared in a vision to a monk, Bartolomeo d'Ivrea, in 1480. There's a small museum, a church and several rather rough, near life-size statue groups (including one of the Last Supper) in niches on the stairway. The best-known painting in the church is La Fuga in Egitto (Flight to Egypt), painted in 1522 by Bramantino.
Contrasting in style are the naive votive paintings by the church entrance, where the Madonna and Child appear as ghostly apparitions in life-and-death situations.
A funicular runs every 15 minutes from the town centre past the sanctuary to Orisella, but the 20-minute walk up is …
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Musée Olympique
This museum is surprisingly interesting given that its subject does not elicit universal interest. Housed in a lavish building in the Parc Olympique, atop a tiered landscaped garden, it tells the Olympic story from its inception under Pierre de Coubertin to the most recent competition. Videos, archival film (usually including footage of the most recent games), touch-screen computers and memorabilia (anything from the Olympic flame torches used since 1936 to a pair of sprinter Carl Lewis’ track shoes) all help bring this sporting saga to life.
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Augusta Raurica
By the Rhine, these Roman ruins are Switzerland's largest. They're the last remnants of a colony founded in 44 BC that had grown to 20,000 citizens by the 2nd century. Today, restored features include an open-air theatre and several temples. There's also a Roman Museum which features an authentic Roman house among its exhibits.
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Tour de l'Ale
The cylindrical Tour de l'Ale, tucked away at the end of Rue de la Tour, is the only surviving vestige of medieval Lausanne's defensive walls. It was built in 1340 at the extreme western point of the medieval suburb of Ale. That we can admire the tower at all is due to those townspeople who opposed demolition plans in 1903.
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Jet d'Eau
Calling the Jet d'Eau a fountain is an understatement. The water shoots up with incredible force (200km/h, 1360HP), to create a 140m-high plume. At any one time there are seven tonnes of water in the air, and much of it falls on spectators who venture out on the pier.
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Puppenhausmuseum
Basel’s Puppenhausmuseum attracts teddy-bear fans from all over the place. Indeed, the museum claims to have the world’s biggest collection of teddy bears. There are doll’s houses galore too.
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Tinguely Fountain
Just south of Barfüsserplatz is the zany Tinguely Fountain, with all sorts of wacky machines spewing and shooting forth water. It is a foretaste of the madcap moving sculptures in the Museum Jean Tinguely.
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Lake Lucerne
If you're not averse to breathtaking mountain scenery - perhaps a glance or two at a shimmering expanse of water with majestic steep peaks of limestone hunched over the coastline, forests coming down to the shore filled with deer, chamois, foxes, and Alpine-native marmots; and fertile hillsides, meadows and valleys beyond - then this lake won't disappoint.
The lake's northern point is expansive; the southern spur (Urnersee) is more fjord-like and has special significance for the Swiss as it's home to the Rütli meadow where the country was, in a way, born. The southern springs (now marked by the Kaltbad) were discovered to have curative properties, as far back in 1885. You…
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Blackmint – Distillerie Kübler & Wyss
From 1910, following Switzerland’s prohibition of the wickedly alcoholic and ruthlessly bitter aniseed drink, distillers of the so-called ‘devil in the bottle’ in the Val de Travers moved underground. In 1990 the great-grandson of a pre-prohibition distiller in Môtiers came up with Switzerland’s first legal aniseed liqueur since 1910 – albeit one which was only 45% proof alcohol (instead of 50% to 75%) and which scarcely contained thujone (the offensive chemical found in wormwood, said to be the root of absinthe’s devilish nature). An extrait d’absinthe (absinthe extract) quickly followed and in 2005, following Switzerland’s lifting of its absinthe ban, the…
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Zytglogge
Called Zeitglockenturm in High German, it was once part of the city's western gate (1191-1256). It's reminiscent of the Astronomical Clock in Prague's old town square in that crowds congregate to watch it chime - and then wonder why. The clock's revolving figures begin twirling at four minutes before the hour, after which the actual chimes begin. Tours enter the tower to see the clock mechanism between May and October (contact the tourist office).
It's said the clock tower helped Albert Einstein hone his theory of relativity, developed while working as a patent clerk in Bern. The great scientist surmised, while travelling on a tram away from the tower, that if the tram we…
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Faulensee
Ever wondered why the radio plays on deep in the heart of a tunnel? What lies above the surface in Switzerland is only half the story. Riddled with more holes than an Emmental cheese, this country is full of subterranean surprises, including the formerly top-secret bunkers at Faulensee built to house troops defending Thun, Spiez and the Lötschberg railway. During summer, they’re open to the public once a month. Cleverly disguised as farmhouses, the entrances to the bunkers are guarded by cannons and connected by underground tunnels in which you’ll find offices, laboratories, kitchens and cramped sleeping quarters. Tours last 1½ to two hours, and you’ll need warm clothing …
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Lion Monument
Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen's Lion of Lucerne (Löwendenkmal) was built in 1819-21, a big dying beast sculptured into a former sandstone quarry wall. When author Mark Twain saw it he said it was the 'saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world'.
The Lion Monument commemorates (as the plaque says in Latin) the 'loyalty and bravery of the Swiss' who 'fell in the line of duty' or 'survived the battle through the care and attention of friends' during the French Revolution in 1792 while defending King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their children in Paris's Tuileries Palace. Some 800 Swiss mercenaries died while defending the palace, unaware that their royal emplo…
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Alpine Garden
The Alpine Garden on Schynige Platte (The Plateau) boasts over 500 types of flora. Take a cog-wheel train trip from Wilderswil to the 1967m (6450ft)-high plateau and be rewarded by magnificent views and an abundance of alpine flora, including Edelweiss. There's also a collection of thousands of toy bears at Teddyland.
Despite all this, the main attraction is the hiking and the views. The Panoramaweg is an easy two-hour circuit, while the trail to Grindelwald-First is one of the best in the region. If you're here in July or August, don't miss the moonlight hikes.
You reach the plateau on a cog-wheel train from Wilderswil, a short train ride from Interlaken Ost.
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Kapellbrücke
Crossing the Reuss River in the Old Town, this bridge is Lucerne's most potent symbol. It dates from the 14th century and the octagonal water tower remains original. However its sides and gabled roof are modern reconstructions, rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1993.
The bridge is famous for the triangular, painted roof panels that line its ceiling, created by Heinrich Wägmann in 1614 and depicting important events from Swiss history and mythology. Fortunately, some 30 of these were also rescued from the blaze and have been replaced at either end of the bridge. Gaps between them have been retained as a constant reminder of the loss of others.
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Ballenberg Open-Air Museum
For a fascinating insight into the rural Switzerland of yore, visit Ballenberg Open-Air Museum, set in 80-hectare grounds east of Brienz. Authentically reconstructed farming hamlets take you on an architectural stroll around Switzerland, with 100 century-old buildings from humble wooden huts in Valais to hip-roofed farmhouses in the Bernese Oberland. Demonstrations from bobbin lace–making to cow herding showcase Swiss crafts and traditions. Woodlands, medicinal herb gardens and animals (check out the shaggy black-nosed sheep) are also on site. Picnickers can buy wood-oven bread, homemade cheese and sausage at the shop.
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Münster
The 13th-century Münster is a mix of Gothic exteriors and Romanesque interiors and was largely rebuilt after an earthquake in 1356. The tomb of the Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536), who lived in Basel, lies in the cathedral’s northern aisle. In the crypt are remnants of the cathedral’s 9th-century predecessor. You can climb the soaring Gothic towers (Sfr3) in groups of two or more. The two chunky, red-stone, late-Gothic cloisters, mostly from the 15th century but with Romanesque vestiges, are linked by a broad hall, whose timber ceiling was once richly decorated.
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Château de Chillon
This extraordinary, oval-shaped castle was brought to the attention of the world by Lord Byron, and the world has been filing past ever since - they say the castle receives more visitors than any other historical building in Switzerland.
Occupying a stunning position on Lake Geneva, the 13th-century fortress is a myriad of courtyards, towers and halls filled with arms, period furniture and artwork. The landward side is heavily fortified but lakeside it presents a gentler face as a princely residence. Chillon was largely built by the House of Savoy and then taken over by Bern's governors after Vaud fell.
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Kultur und Kongresszentrum
With striking angles and clean lines, Parisian architect Jean Nouvel’s waterfront Kultur und Kongresszentrum is a post-modern marvel in an otherwise historic city. But don’t think a pretty face implies a superficial soul: the main concert hall’s acoustics are as close to perfect as humankind has ever known, according to many musicians and conductors who have performed here. The trick is that the tall, narrow concert hall, partly built below the lake’s surface, is surrounded by a reverberation chamber and has an adjustable suspended ceiling, all creating a bubble of silence.
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Einstein Haus
The world’s most famous scientist developed his special theory of relativity in Bern in 1905. Find out more at the small museum inside the humble apartment where Einstein lived with his young family between 1903 and 1905 while working as a low-paid clerk in the Bern patent office. Multimedia displays now flesh out the story of the subsequent general equation – E=mc², or energy equals mass times the speed of light squared – which fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time and the universe. Upstairs, a 20-minute biographical film tells his life story.
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Commune Libre du Neubourg et Alentours
Neuchâtel's so-called Commune Libre du Neubourg et Alentours - a good mate of Paris' Montmartre (a self-declared free commune since 1920) - boils down to a good excuse to party. Founded in 1979, it embraces a trio of Old Town streets - Rue de Neubourg, Rue des Fausses-Brayes and colourfully frescoed Rue des Chavannes, otherwise dubbed Rue des Peintres (Painters' St).
It has the free-thinking motto 'voir d'un œil sentir de l'autre' (look with one eye, feel with the other) scribed as a footnote on the unofficial street sign pinned up next to the official one.
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Fluntern Cemetery
Like many disgruntled pacifists, Irish writer James Joyce took refuge in neutral Zürich during WWI - although he managed to distinguish himself from most by writing Ulysses, one of greatest pieces of world literature, while here. Joyce returned to the city just before his death in 1941 and is buried in Fluntern cemetery.
There's a statue of Joyce on his grave, so you can't miss it. This is a lovely spot and while here, you could pop into Zürich's unusually pleasant zoo. Alternatively just wander up the Zúrichberg hill and gaze down on the city.
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La Maison Blanche
The neoclassical house with white facade and shiny roof, now known as La Maison Blanche, is prized as Le Corbusier’s first independent piece of work – and a notable break from the regional art nouveau. Architecturally unrecognisable as Le Corbusier to anyone familiar with his later work, it sat derelict in the leafy hilltop neighbourhood above La Chaux until 2004, when the modern architecture treasure was renovated, refurnished (with some original furnishings, such as the green canapé in the sitting room) and opened to the public.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angioli
The simple Romanesque Chiesa diSanta Mariadegli Angioli, against which a now crumbling former hotel was built, contains two frescos by Bernardino Luini dating from 1529. Covering the entire wall that divides the church in two is a grand didactic illustration of the Crucifixion. The closer you look, the more scenes of Christ’s Passion are revealed, along with others of him being taken down from the cross and his resurrection. The power and vivacity of the colours are astounding. Less alive is Luini’s depiction of the Last Supper on the left wall.
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