The Swiss National Museum () is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland's largest city, adjacent to

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

and the '' Platzspitz'' park. It is part of the ''Musée Suisse Group'', which is itself affiliated with the

Federal Office of Culture The Federal Office of Culture (FOC) is an administrative unit of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, based in Bern, Switzerland. The agency has two extensive areas of responsibility: promoting Swiss culture and preserving the country’s c ...

Architecture

The museum building of 1898 in the

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying the process or history by which they came about. The term is widely used in philosophy, ant ...

style was built by Gustav Gull in the form of the

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define ...

city chateaus. His impressive architecture with dozens of towers, courts and his astonishing park on a peninsula between the rivers

Sihl The Sihl is a Switzerland, Swiss river that rises near the Druesberg mountain in the canton of Schwyz, and eventually flows into the Limmat in the centre of the Zürich, city of Zürich, after crossing the Zürich–Winterthur railway at . It has ...

and

Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, continuing a further 35 km until it reaches the river A ...

has become one of the main sights of the Old Town district of Zurich. Its inauguration was filmed by

François-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke François-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke was a Swiss cinematographer, philanthropist and entrepreneur. He is credited with having been the first cinematographer of Switzerland. Early life and education He was born on 4 January 1848 in Morges into a fam ...

, the first non-french concessionary of the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: Buildings * Lumière, a building used by the Bibliothèque publique d'information in Paris, France * Lumiere (skyscraper), a cancelled skyscraper development in Leeds, ...

Exhibits

The exhibition tour takes the visitor from prehistory through ancient times and the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

to the 20th century (classic

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

and art of the 16th, 17th and 18th century is settled mainly in the Kunsthaus Museum in a different part of the city of Zürich). There is a very rich section with

gothic art Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern Europe, Norther ...

, chivalry and a comprehensive collection of

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

wooden sculptures,

panel painting A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not pain ...

s and carved altars. Zunfthaus zur Meisen near

Fraumünster The Fraumünster (; lit. in ) is a church in Zürich which was built on the remains of a former abbey for aristocratic women which was founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the l ...

church houses the porcelain and faience collection of the Swiss National Museum. There are also: a Collections Gallery, a place where Swiss furnishings are exhibited, an Armoury Tower, a diorama of the

Battle of Murten The Battle of Morat took place during the Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) that was fought on 22 June 1476 between Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, and a Swiss Confederation army at Morat (Murten), about 30 kilometres from Bern Bern ...

, and a Coin Cabinet showing 14th, 15th, 16th century Swiss coins and even some coins from the Middle Ages.

Transport

The boats of the

Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft The Lake Zurich Navigation Company (, ZSG) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Zurich () and the river Limmat in Zurich.The company's services connect lake-side towns between Zurich and Rapperswil/ Schmerikon, i ...

start their round trips (Swiss National Museum–

Wollishofen Wollishofen is a neighbourhood in Zürich's district 2 (Zürich), 2nd district, situated in the eastern foothills of Uetliberg. It was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The neighbourhood has a popul ...

–

Zürichhorn Zürichhorn is a river delta on Zürichsee's eastern shore in the lower basin of the lake. The area is part of the parks and quays in the Seefeld (Zürich), Seefeld quarter of the city of Zürich in Switzerland. The gardens are one of the most popu ...

) on the

through the city of Zürich at the Swiss National Museum. The closest

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

stop is .

Gallery

File:Pointe de flèche.png,

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, or sometimes for special purposes such as signaling. ...

, found at Estavayer FR. File:Statuette du dieu Mercure avec un chapeau ailé, en bronze, trouvée à Uster.png,

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

tte of the god Mercury, dressed in a

toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

and a winged hat, found in

Uster Uster (; , ) is a town and the capital of the Uster District in the Swiss canton of Zürich. The importance of the town of Uster has grown considerably with the construction of the S-Bahn network of the Zürich Transport Network. With over 36,0 ...

. File:Fischfibelpaar.jpg, alt=Fibule mérovingienne en forme de poisson,

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

fibula in the shape of a fish, made from almandine wafers and silver leaf (6th century AD), found at

Bülach Bülach () is a historic town and a municipality in Switzerland in the canton of Zürich. It is the administrative capital of Bülach district. It is situated in the Glatt Valley (German: ''Glattal'') to the east of the small river Glatt and ab ...

inside a woman's tomb. File:Coupe en or découverte à Zurich-Altstetten.png, Gold cup discovered in Altstetten.

References

External links

National Museum ZurichWhat the Swiss National Museum in Zurich is all about
{{Authority control Museums established in 1890 Buildings and structures completed in 1898 National museums of Switzerland Art museums and galleries in Switzerland Altstadt (Zurich) Museums in Zurich

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...