Where to Stay in Winterthur, Kanton Zürich

What is Winterthur known for?

Once a great machine town, it turned its wealth to art, and it keeps famous collections of painting, a leading photography museum, and a hands-on science centre, along with a well-kept medieval old town, in the green country east of Zurich. The old town fills with strollers. Museums and old town mark the city.

What are the main landmarks in Winterthur?

The Oskar Reinhart collections are the pride of Winterthur. Two fine galleries, one in a villa on the hill, keep the paintings the great collector gathered, the mark of the city, above the town. A science centre draws the crowds.

The Technorama lets visitors touch and try its experiments, while the photography museum and the medieval old town mark the streets of Winterthur.

What is the history of Winterthur?

Winterthur began as a Roman post on the road. A fort called Vitudurum stood here in Roman days, and a town grew by it in the middle ages that won its charter and its walls, a market of the Zurich country. Then machines made it rich.

In the nineteenth century great works rose in the town, chief among them the Sulzer firm, which built engines, pumps, and locomotives sold across the world. The rich merchants turned to collecting art. Its machine wealth filled fine houses with paintings, and men like Oskar Reinhart gathered great collections that the city keeps as its museums now.

The town grew famous for its museums. Beside the art came a museum of photography and a hands-on science centre, so small Winterthur drew visitors far beyond its size, while its old town stayed quiet and whole. The old works still stand by the tracks.

Winterthur keeps its museums and its old town near Zurich.

Where is Winterthur?

Winterthur lies in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland, northeast of the city of Zurich. The town sits in a green valley of the Eulach among wooded hills, on the edge of the Zurich highlands, between the Rhine and the lake. Forested ridges rise around.

The valley opens toward the plain.

What is the climate of Winterthur?

Winterthur's weather follows a temperate continental pattern. Warm summers and cold winters cross the valley, and rain falls through the year with snow in the cold months, sometimes hazy with fog in the low season. Mist fills the valley on autumn mornings.

The hills stay green much of the year.

How do you get to Winterthur?

Winterthur lies northeast of Zurich in northern Switzerland. Frequent trains run to it from Zurich and the airport in minutes, and roads and the motorway cross the hills, while lines run on to the Rhine. Buses also run out to the villages up the valley.

Most arrive by train from Zurich.