Sights in Switzerland
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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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Stockalperschloss
Kaspar von Stockalper (1609–91), a shrewd businessman who dominated the Simplon Pass trade routes, built this whimsical palace and dubbed himself the ‘Great Stockalper’. Locals didn’t think he was so great and sent him packing to Italy. His palace remains with its baublelike onion domes and arcaded inner courtyard. It’s free to wander the main court (open 6am to 10pm April to October and 6am to 8pm November to March) and the baroque gardens with their quintessential parterres, fountains and clipped hedges.
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Spreuer Bridge
Further down the river, the Spreuerbrücke is darker and smaller than the Chapel Bridge, but its 1408 structure is entirely original. Lore has it that this was the only bridge where locals were allowed to throw Spreu (chaff) into the river in medi-eval times. Here, the roof panels consist of artist Caspar Meglinger’s movie-storyboard-style sequence of paintings, The Dance of Death, showing how the plague affected all levels of society.
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Emmentaler Schaukäserei
Watch Emmental cheese being made into 95kg wheels and taste it at the Emmental Show Dairy in Affoltern. Short videos explain the modern production process and how Emmental gets its famous holes, while cheesemaking as it was done in the 18th century happens once a day over an open fire in the 18th-century herdsman’s cottage.
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Mystery Park
This other-worldly theme park looms large on the outskirts of Interlaken, with expensive re-creations of a Mayan temple, Egyptian pyramid, Indian Vimana (mythical flying machine), Stonehenge and a highly visible 'Sphere'.
It's the brainchild of Erich von Däniken, the Swiss author of the 1970s bestseller Chariots of the Gods, and its displays (including crop circles in summer) are meant to get you thinking about aliens. Sceptics need not apply. There's a free shuttle bus from Interlaken Ost once or twice an hour.
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Berner Münster
The high point of the 15th-century Gothic cathedral Berner Münster is its lofty spire. At 100m, it’s Switzerland’s tallest, and those with enough energy to climb the dizzying 344-step spiral staircase are rewarded with vertiginous views of the Bernese Alps on a clear day. Coming down, take a breather by the Upper Bells (1356), rung at 11am, noon and 3pm daily, and the three Lower Bells, each weighing 10 tonnes, making them Switzerland’s largest bells.
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Vitra Design Museum
Pop across the German border to the Vitra Design Museum. Not only is the main museum building by the Guggenheim’s creator, Frank Gehry, the surrounding factory complex of famous furniture manufacturer Vitra comprises buildings by other cutting-edge architects, such as Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid and Álvaro Siza. Exhibitions cover all aspects of interior design. Catch bus 55 from Claraplatz in Kleinbasel (30 minutes) to the Vitra stop. Border checks are theoretically possible, so take your passport.
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Historisches Museum Basel
One of the most wide-ranging sight in the city, the collections of the Historisches Museum Basel include pre-Christian-era archaeological finds, a collection of religious objects from the cathedral and plenty of material documenting the city’s development. It is housed in the former Barfüsserkirche (the Barefooted Ones Church, after the barefoot Franciscan friars who founded it in the 14th century). Highlights include the fine 16th-century choir stall and 15th-century tapestries.
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Museum Sammlung Rosengart
Lucerne’s blockbuster cultural attraction is the Sammlung Rosengart, occupying a graceful neoclassical pile. It showcases the outstanding stash of Angela Rosengart, a Swiss art dealer and close friend of Picasso. Alongside works by the great Spanish master are paintings and sketches by Cézanne, Klee, Kandinsky, Miró, Matisse and Monet. Standouts include Joan Miró’s electric-blue Dancer II (1925) and Paul Klee’s childlike X-chen (1938).
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Schiffbau
Symbolic of the renaissance of once-industrial western Zürich is the Schiffbau. Once a mighty factory churning out lake steamers and, until 1992, turbine-engine parts, this enormous shell has been turned (at considerable cost) into the seat of the Schauspielhaus, a huge theatre, with three stages. It is worth just having a look inside. It is also home to a stylish restaurant (LaSalle), upstairs bar (Nietturm) and jazz den (Moods, see Live Music above).
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Lion Monument
By far the most touching of the 19th-century sights that lured so many British to Lucerne is the Lion Monument. Lukas Ahorn carved this 10m-long sculpture of a dying lion into the rock face in 1820 to commemorate Swiss soldiers who died defending King Louis XVI during the French Revolution. Mark Twain once called it the ‘saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world’. For Narnia fans, it often evokes Aslan at the stone table.
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Cathédrale de Notre Dame
The Gothic Cathédrale de Notre Dame, arguably the finest in Switzerland, stands proudly at the heart of the vieille ville. Raised in the 12th and 13th centuries on the site of earlier, humbler churches, it lacks the lightness of French Gothic buildings but is remarkable nonetheless. Pope Gregory X, in the presence of Rudolph of Habsburg (the Holy Roman Emperor) and an impressive following of European cardinals and bishops, consecrated the church in 1275.
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Natur-Museum
Anyone intrigued by stuffed critters and creepy crawlies shouldn’t miss this hands-on museum. Highlights feature a woodland trail with real trees and a mushroom computer (don’t eat the red spotty ones), plus the fabled Luzerner Drachenstein (Luzern Dragon Stone), which, according to legend, fell from a dragon’s mouth as it was flying over Mt Pilatus. Modern science suggests that the 15th-century stone was probably a meteorite.
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Matterhorn Museum
The crystalline, state-of-the-art Matterhorn Museum centres on an authentically recreated Valaisan village. It provides a fascinating insight into mountaineering, the dawn of tourism and the lives Matterhorn has claimed. Must-sees include Roosevelt’s letters, Raymond Lambert’s reindeer-skin boots (made to measure after his toes were amputated) and the infamous rope that broke in 1865 and turned the first ascent of Matterhorn into a tragedy.
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Sensorium
When all that cheese gets too much, flit to the mountain hamlet of Rüttihubelbad for an alternative sensory experience at Sensorium, an interactive museum aimed at exploring four of the five senses (no taste involved!). A disconcerting stroll in the dark through a maze, a thump on a deafening gong, a back massage with a bowl, a swing in a wicker basket and a barefoot stroll across sand, bricks and tree stumps are among the playful experiences.
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Castello Visconteo
Castello Visconteo, dating from the 15th century and named after the Visconti clan that long ruled Milan, today houses a museum with Roman and Bronze Age exhibits. Locarno is believed to have been a glass-manufacturing town in Roman times, which accounts for the strong showing of glass artefacts in the museum. This labyrinth of a castle, whose nucleus was raised around the 10th century, also hosts a small display (in Italian) on the Locarno Treaty.
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Via Pretorio 9 (Cherry Building)
The pink brick Mario Botta office block is known to locals as the Cherry Building because of the cherry tree planted on the roof. It was designed by Lugano's Mario Botta (born 1943 in Mendrisio to the south), who has made an international name for himself as a leading light in contemporary architecture. Best known for his work abroad (like San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art and the Kyobo Tower in Seoul), Botta has also left an indelible mark on and around Lugano.
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Swiss National Park Centre
At the brand-new, hands-on Swiss National Park Centre, you can explore a marmot hole, eyeball adders in the vivarium and learn about conservation and environmental change. The tourist office here can provide details on hikes in the park, including the three-hour trudge from S-chanf to Alp Trupchun, particularly popular in autumn, when you might spy rutting deer; and the Naturlehrpfad circuit near Il Fuorn, where bearded vultures are often sighted.
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James Joyce's Grave
One of the greatest works of English literature, James Joyce's Ulysses, was written in Zürich and its author is buried here. Irish Joyce was just one disgruntled intellectual - Lenin and Trotsky were others - who took refuge in this neutral city during WWI, and he finished his epic during wartime exile here (1915-19). He returned shortly before dying in January 1941 and his carefully tended grave is found in Fluntern Cemetery; take tram No 6 to Zoo.
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Museggmauer
For a bird’s-eye view over Lucerne’s rooftops to the glittering lake and mountains beyond, wander the medieval ramparts. A walkway is open between the Schirmerturm (tower), where you enter, and the Wachturm, from where you have to retrace your steps. You can also ascend and descend the Zytturm or Männliturm (the latter not connected to the ramparts walkway).
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Goetheanum
The unassuming village of Dornach, 13km south of Basel, is home to the Goetheanum, a rather other-worldly building that is the global headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society. Austrian philosopher and teacher Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) developed the thinking behind anthroposophy, which proposes the possibility of apprehending a spiritual world through inner development. He also designed this 1928 building, done in reinforced concrete.
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European Organisation for Nuclear Research
European Organisation for Nuclear Research, 8km west near Meyrin, is a laboratory for research into particle physics and was founded in 1954. It accelerates electrons and positrons down a 27km circular tube (the world's biggest machine) and the resulting collisions create new forms of matter - in 1996 it created antimatter for the first time. The lab can be visited by a free three-hour guided tour; book at least one month in advance.
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