Zurich, the city of Dada, Chagall and Le Corbusier: the back story

About Zurich, the city of Dada, Chagall and Le Corbusier: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Zurich Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Zurich’s art is bolder than its banks suggest. In 1916 Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings founded the Cabaret Voltaire in the Old Town, and Dada was born there. The Kunsthaus, Switzerland’s largest art museum in Zurich Tourism’s words, holds the largest collection of Munch outside Norway, in its original building and David Chipperfield’s extension of 2021. Le Corbusier’s last building, completed in 1967, stands by the lake; the Tonhalle, inaugurated by Brahms in 1895, and the Opera House carry the city’s music.

The museums

The Kunsthaus on the Heimplatz, from the 13th century to today; the Museum Rietberg, with art from Asia, Africa, America and Oceania in the villas of the Rieterpark; the Swiss National Museum by the station; the Museum für Gestaltung; and the contemporary art of the Löwenbräukunst complex in Zurich West.

Music and stage

The Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, under its Music Director Paavo Järvi, plays in the Tonhalle, whose large hall seats 1,500; the Opera House on the Sechseläutenplatz stages opera and the Ballett Zürich; and the Schauspielhaus, at the Pfauen since 1901, saw premieres of Brecht, Frisch and Dürrenmatt.

Thursday evenings are late openings at several museums: plan a museum night.

Dada and the avant-garde

The Cabaret Voltaire on the Spiegelgasse still holds exhibitions and soirées; the Pavillon Le Corbusier, the architect’s only building in steel and glass, is a museum in summer.

The festivals

The Zurich Film Festival returns from 23 September to 3 October 2027; the guilds’ spring festival, Sechseläuten, is on 19 April 2027.

Our advice: the Zürich Card gives free entry to many of the museums.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Zurich, the city of Dada, Chagall and Le Corbusier: the back story before you go.