The foundations

Remains of habitation have been found around Lake Zurich from the younger Stone Age and the Bronze Age. La Tène culture was also represented before the Celtic Hellies came into being. The Helvetias had settled most of the present Swiss territory, and at the northern tip of Lake Zurich, their settlement lay on the Lindenhof.

The Romans came to the place where they established the Turicum customs station for goods to and from Italy. The area belonged to the province of Germania Superior from the year 90, and after Emperor Constantine’s reform of the empire’s borders in 318, the border between Gaul and Italy was laid immediately east of Turicum, where the garrison was located and where, among other things, there was a Jupiter temple.

Christianity came to Turicum in the 20th century with the later martyrs of the city, Felix and Regula, who deserted from the Roman army and, according to legend, were executed in 286 at the site of the church of Wasserkirche.

The West Germanic Alemane tribe settled in the region from the 400s, while the castle of Turicum remained in place until the 600s. In the 600s, the settlement was also mentioned for the first time with a Germanic name, Ziurichi, which was reproduced by a geographer from Ravenna. The general manager of the time Uotila, by the way, gave his name to today’s Üetliberg.

The city grows and trades

From 746 the Alemans in Zurich came to the French Empire as the province of Alemannia. A new castle later replaced the old defenses of the Romans, and the city was expanded; among others with the Abbey of Fraumünster in 835. In the year 870, the Frankish kings placed the exercise of their power in Zurich with a bailiff. The city was further strengthened by the establishment of a city wall in the 9th century.

The oldest known coins of the city date from 972, and in 1045 the German-Roman emperor Henrik III Fraumünster granted the rights to hold markets, strike coins and levy taxes. With it, the monastery became an important factor for the development of the city.

In the 1000-1100s, the merchants, primarily dealing in textile products based on wool and silk, created a particularly thriving economy. Wealth meant a beginning of progress for the urban development itself, and when the form of government with a bailiff disappeared with the last of the family of von Zähringen’s death in 1218, it meant that Zurich became a sanctuary in the German-Roman Empire in 1218.

The city expanded, and in the 1230s a city wall was built around the city’s then 38 hectare area. The moat was along the later Bahnhofstraße.

Change of Power

In 1234, Emperor Friedrich II made Fraumüster’s abbess into the duchess with the right to appoint the mayor of Zurich, thus topping the power of the monastery. After this time, the various layers of the city gained greater power through their economic development of the city, and in 1336 the mayor of Zurich, Rudolf Brun, decided that the layers should take over the city. They partially retained power until the 19th century, and with the abolition of monasteries in connection with the Reformation in the 16th century, this power factor was gone.

With the new form of government, Rudolf Brun became the first mayor who was not appointed by the monastery. Later, he was appointed by the new city council as mayor for life, which brought the city into opposition to parts of the Austrian Habsburgs. As a consequence, in 1351 Zurich became the fifth member of the Swiss Federation. The membership formed the backdrop of Zurich’s status as a cultural and intellectual center for a larger area rather than simply developing as an urban state.

In the mid-1400s, Zurich fought with the other states in the Confederation over the territory of Toggenburg, which caused the city to be thrown out in 1440 to be re-elected as a member ten years later. In the latter part of the 15th century, however, Zurich increased its land considerably, as victories over or purchases of Thurgau, Winterthur, Stein am Rhein and Eglisau between 1460 and 1496 meant an increased status in the Confederacy.

As a city, Mayor Hans Waldmann’s ambition was to make Zurich a significant center, and his reforms also provided growth and a position as the leading state in the Swiss Confederation.

16th century and the Reformation

Zurich’s cultural role for the whole country became evident in the 16th century, where it became the main city of the Swiss movement during the Reformation. The central figure in the country was Zurich’s religious leader, Huldrych Zwingli, who preached at the Großmünster Cathedral from 1519 until his death on the battlefield in 1531.

With the cessation of Catholic services of 1525, Zurich became the meeting place for many intellectuals, and during that time in Großmünster Zwingli also enjoyed considerable political power. The Reformation had brought an international flow to the city. Dissidents from all over Europe now left their cultural mark on the city’s development.

In 1549, Calvinist doctrine was introduced instead of Huldrych’s Zwinglis, and it was the beginning of the recession for the city, which no longer had the same international appeal as before.

In the 16th to 1600s, the city’s self-understanding changed through the government’s more closed politics than before. The extended fortification around the city from 1642 was a manifest example of this, and in 1648 Zurich changed its status from state to republic with Genoa and Venice as role models. At that time, there were about 9,000 residents with privileges and about 170,000 in total in the Republic.

Silk trade and Napoleonic times

The silk was important to the economy of Zurich in the 18th century, and the rival Winthertur was subject to heavy taxes. It came to various revolts, which were forcibly struck down. With the French Revolution, currents came to Switzerland for the introduction of a more liberal form of government.

The new Swiss constitution in 1798 became a turning point. In the new republic, Zurich lost both power and territory; the regions of Aargau, Thurgau and Linth were lost.

During the French Revolutionary Wars, two military battles took place around Zurich in June and September 1799, respectively. Now it was France’s turn to attack and defeat a Russian-Austrian army.

In the years 1803-1814, Zurich, along with five other regions, were cantons, with the federal leadership intervening between the cantons.

In 1814 a new constitution was adopted in the canton. It placed the power of the 10,000 citizens of the city of Zurich at the expense of the roughly 200,000 in rural areas. In the cantonal parliament, city representatives had an absolute majority. In the 1830s this lopsided representation was rectified, and the balance of power tipped in favor of the inhabitants outside Zurich itself.

Capital and expansion in the economy

The 19th century marked the beginning of Zurich’s boom, which was the first massive growth since the 16th century. The old defenses around the city were demolished in the 1830s, and many new streets and neighborhoods were constructed. The time was also the railway as the new mode of transport, and the first railway in Switzerland opened in 1847 and connected Zurich and Baden.

1839-1840 and again in 1845-1846, Zurich enjoyed a federal capital status. Shortly after, in 1848, Bern was chosen as the country’s permanent capital. Bern became the country’s political center, but initiatives by not least the railway magnate and administrator Alfred Escher made Zurich the country’s economic locomotive.

Escher implemented laws and measures that led to strong growth in the financial sector, tourism and production. This was the basis for Zurich’s future and continued status as an international center for banking and other economic activities. In 1877, the Zurich Stock Exchange was established as the most important in Switzerland.

Zurich grew, and in 1893 and again in 1934, part of the area around Zurich was incorporated into the official urban area. In total, these were 19 municipalities that had gradually developed into suburbs.

Zurich in the 20th Century

With Switzerland’s neutrality during the First World War, Zurich became an intellectual sanctuary for refugees and different thinkers; For example, Lenin lived here for a time in 1916 during his preparations for the Russian Revolution.

James Joyce came to the city where he wrote his main work Ulysses, and in 1916 a number of new artists formed the movement “Dada”, which later established the famous Cabaret Voltaire.

The 1920s saw a great period of growth in Zurich, where the city and its suburbs were greatly expanded. During this time, many buildings were erected in modernist architecture. However, the decade ended in economic crisis like so many other places in the world, and Zurich as an industrial city was severely affected by production and the resultant increase in unemployment.

Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany, through the 1930s, led many to move from these countries to Switzerland, and many came to Zurich, whose cultural life with new powers became one of the leaders in the German-speaking world. In Zurich itself, there were also Nazis and Communists during this time, but the parties did not get support as in neighboring countries and partly their activities were stopped by legislation.

World War II to this day

Immediately after World War II, through which Zurich and Switzerland were physically graciously escaped, began, among other large public building programs, which initiated a new economic growth. Housing construction and the adoption of the investment in a large airport in the suburb of Kloten were among the most significant investments.

In 1946, the city came on the big political world map as English Winston Churchill held his famous European speech in the University of Zurich’s auditorium. The speech was a vision of a united Europe.

In the following years, Zurich quickly developed into one of the world’s leading financial centers, and today the Zurich Stock Exchange is one of the world’s largest, and the city is among the most important marketplaces for the world’s gold trade. It was several decades of growth that the Swiss metropolis experienced and continues to prosper.

In 1962, the city’s population peaked at 445,000; however, significantly more people live in the metropolitan area, where more than the municipality of Zurich is counted. During this time, plans were made for a fully developed subway, but this was wrecked by the population, and one of only a few built stations is Tierspital, which instead is a stop on the tram network that has been continuously invested in.

Today, the city is very well maintained, and a lot of investment has been invested in maintaining a broad cultural offering. Geographically, the urban area has spread along Lake Zurich and also towards other cantons.