Two Churches in Zurich

After our Sunday buffet breakfast, we hopped on the train to make the short journey to the center of Zurich.  Two of the city's major attractions are the historic churches... the Grossmünster and the Fraumünster.

The Grossmünster is currently undergoing renovations, and the entire exterior is covered in scaffolding.  However, you may visit the interior.

 According to legend, a church on this site was commissioned by Charlemagne.  The current structure was built as a monastery church between 1100 and 1220. However, the towers were not completed until 1787.  The church is of great significance in the history of the Reformation because it was here that the theologian Zwingli preached against the practices of the Catholic Church and began the Protestantism in Switzerland.

The Protestant Reformation resulted in Catholic statuary and decoration being destroyed or removed.  Thus, the church's interior is very austere.  The stained glass windows were designed by the modern Swiss painter Augusto Giacometti and added in 1932.

The pulpit

In the Romanesque crypt which dates back to the 11th century, there are remnants of medieval paintings.

A statue of the church's legendary founder, Charlemagne

Across the Limmat River is the Fraumünster.  The church stands on the site of a Benedictine convent founded in the 9th century by the King Louis the German, a grandson of Charlemagne.  Louis named his daughter as the abbess of the convent.  The abbess was granted privileges that made her and her successors effectively the rulers of the city.  Over the centuries, the architecture of the church evolved, and in the 15th century it underwent a renovation in the Gothic style.  The spire was a recent addition in 1732.  As with the Grossmünster, during the Reformation altars and artwork were removed.

The church today is most famous for its stained glass windows which were done by the famous artist Marc Chagell between 1967 and 1970.  They depict various scenes from the Bible, and have been called the most beautiful stained glass windows from the 20th century.