A short history
The Fraumünster church, whose green spire rises over the Limmat, was founded in 853 by King Louis the German. Today it is visited above all for its stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall and Augusto Giacometti.
In 1833 Zürich founded its university, the first university in Europe founded by a democratic state rather than by a monarch or the Church. In 1855 the Swiss federal state opened the Federal Polytechnic School in the city, which took its present name, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), in 1911.
Science profile
Zürich’s science rests on its two universities and on industrial research nearby. On this site we follow four fields: computer science, artificial intelligence, nanoscience and materials, and earth sciences. The institutions are described on Institutes & Facilities.
On the Atlas
Zürich is the last stop on the Swiss Model route of the TheScience.fm Atlas, which follows how Switzerland organises research.
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Large research machines for particles, photons and plasma.
Stops: Grenoble.science → Geneva.science → Lausanne.science → Villigen.science → Frascati.science
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Space agencies, mission centres and the people who build spacecraft.
Stops: Pasadena.science → Noordwijk.science → Bonn.science → Frascati.science
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Cities tied to ideas about how science is judged, funded and measured. Frascati gave its name to the rules for counting R&D.
Stops: Sevres.science → Lyon.science → Bonn.science → Bologna.science → Frascati.science
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Swiss Model via Zürich
How Switzerland organises research, from CERN's host city to its federal institutes.
Stops: Geneva.science → Lausanne.science → Villigen.science → Zuerich.science
| Hub | Anchor institutions | Routes |
|---|---|---|
| Bologna.science | Bologna Process · ECMWF data centre | Concept Cities |
| Bonn.science | DFG · DAAD · Humboldt Foundation · German Space Agency at DLR | Space, Concept Cities |
| Frascati.science | INFN-LNF · ESA ESRIN · ENEA | Big Machines, Space, Concept Cities |
| Geneva.science | CERN | Big Machines, Swiss Model |
| Grenoble.science | ESRF · ILL | Big Machines |
| Lausanne.science | EPFL Swiss Plasma Center | Big Machines, Swiss Model |
| Lyon.science | IARC, the WHO cancer research agency | Concept Cities |
| Noordwijk.science | ESA ESTEC | Space |
| Pasadena.science | Caltech · NASA JPL | Space |
| Sevres.science | BIPM · SI and metrology | Concept Cities |
| Villigen.science | Paul Scherrer Institute | Big Machines, Swiss Model |
| Zuerich.science | ETH Zurich | Swiss Model |
| science.Taipei | Academia Sinica | — |
Sources
- Zürich Tourism, Fraumünster: art, history and stained glass windows
- University of Zurich, History of the University of Zurich
- ETH Zurich, A brief overview of more than 150 years of ETH Zurich history
Sources checked on: 1 November 2026