Zurich's Secret Places

Everyone who visits Zurich recognizes the Grossmünster's twin towers, but far fewer know the church has its own cloister, reached through a separate entrance just to the left of the main doors.

Inside, a garden of historical ornamental plants fills the courtyard, its selection inspired by the 16th-century naturalist Konrad Gessner, who is buried within the cloister itself. The surrounding columns and arches are carved with an odd assortment of figures, animal scenes and gargoyles whose exact meaning has been lost to time.

The original cloister dates from the late 12th century, though what stands today reflects a 19th-century reconstruction after the original structure was partially dismantled and absorbed into a later building.

University of Zurich students know this garden well, but for most visitors Rechberg remains a genuine insider tip — the garden isn't visible from the street at all, tucked behind buildings between the university and the Kunsthaus Zürich.

Step off the tram at the Neumarkt stop and a short walk uphill reveals the view: a formal baroque layout designed in 1790, its original division into courtyard, parterre and terraces still intact, complete with its historic garden walls, fountains and an extended orangery.

On the facade of the university's German Department building, the garden holds an unexpected extra: 'Undine', a preserved 1970s graffiti work by Harald Nägeli, a Swiss artist often described as a precursor to Banksy, now protected under a preservation order despite having been created illegally.

In 1922, the City of Zurich launched a competition to brighten the gloomy entrance hall of its new police headquarters, a former orphanage converted by municipal architect Gustav Gull. Augusto Giacometti won easily, and spent two years covering the vaulted ceiling and walls in warm reds and ochres.

The ceiling bursts with ornamental floral patterns and geometric designs — locals affectionately call it the 'Blüemlihalle,' or 'hall of little flowers' — while the walls depict stone carvers, carpenters, astronomers and magicians representing craft and science side by side.

Extensively restored in 2019, the hall is now considered of national artistic importance, despite still functioning as the working entrance to an active city police building.