Travel Guide Winterthur

Switzerland's sixth-largest city (population over 100,000), once a major industrial and insurance capital, still boasts a splendid medieval center. Today, it is a major city of culture, home to 17 museums, major theaters and trendy alternative spaces for graphic design, theater, dance and cinema... It is also a shopping city and the stronghold of numerous gourmet restaurants and great chocolate makers. The Rhine Falls - the largest in Europe - are only 20 minutes away by car.Winterthur boasts Europe's largest pedestrian zone. Around the Marktgasse, visitors will be enchanted by opulent mansions, the temple, the Fischermädchenbrunnen (fountain) and the famous town hall passage. Don't miss the colorful and friendly Tuesday market, where local producers bustle about. In terms of culture, take a trip to the Swiss Science Center Technorama (over 500 interactive terminals devoted to natural sciences and technology), the Center for Photography (a major European space with over 30,000 original works by world-famous photographers), the Oskar Reinhart "Am Römerholz" collection (Reinhart's large villa houses works of European painting spanning five centuries) and the Museum of Fine Arts (modern art collections, from Picasso to Klee).