Understand
In the late 19th and early 20th century, local companies such as Rieter and Sulzer turned the formally quiet little town into a booming industrial city with an incredible wealth and ever-growing workforce. Diesel engines built in Winterthur powered large ships on all seven seas, while Winterthur-built textile appliances were in service worldwide.
Starting in the 1970's and 80's, blue collar jobs started to be outsourced to countries with lower wages and unemployment rose in Winterthur. Factories were standing still and entire neighborhoods turned into "ghost towns".
However, the IT and Telco boom as well as smart decisions by the local authorities have helped to redevelop those areas into new economy and urban lifestyle areas with many offices, restaurants, schools and even a go-kart racing track.
Winterthur has also positioned itself as a cultural city with many different museums, among them the Oskar Reinhart Museum am Römerholz exhibitioning modern art, the Technorama science center and the Fotostiftung Schweiz showing Swiss and European photography.
Get in
By train
There are direct trains from Zurich, Zurich Airport, Bern, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, and Stuttgart. Winterthur is only 20 minutes away from Zurich or 15 minutes from the Zurich Airport.
Timetables
By car
Use the highway from Zurich, St.Gallen or Schaffhausen.
Get around
Public Transport
On Public Transport in the canton of Zurich is useful information on getting around and what to do in the canton of Zurich. Use the Swiss Federal Railway Site for Public transport and its fares in Switzerland.
Local car rentals
See
There are 17 museums in Winterthur. At
Here you can find more.
Do
Learn
The most famous school of Winterthur is the ZHW - Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur, which offers mostly technical courses. They also offer some limited language courses. Contact them on their website, if you're interested in studying in Winterthur. http://www.zhwin.ch/
Eat
Budget
Try the Migros Restaurant (nice Wintergarden) at the Neuwiesencenter or the Coop Restaurant in the Manor Shopping Center on the 4th floor. Bouth self service and close to the railway station.
For Take-Away food, you can also go for Migros (same place as Restaurant) and have some salad or noodles, usually around 6 CHF. They have a small coffee there, in which you're welcome to enjoy the food. They also offer Pizza, Sandwiches and other Food, like the famous swiss "Wähe" (pie) with all kinds of taste, from sweet over salty to spicy. Give it a try, if you like some swiss food, and not international fast-food.
McDonalds, on the other side of the bus station right at the train station, offers you the usual food you're used to everywhere. Keep in mind that a menu costs you somewhere between 11 to 14 CHF, so a visit in Migros Restaurant is usually cheaper.
Different Kebab Take-away places, giving you a large variety of mostly Turkish specialities. For a regular "Döner Kebap", you will pay somewhere between 8 and 9 CHF.
Mid-range
Splurge
Schloss Wülflingen
Sleep
Budget
Mid-range
Hotel Ibis (From central station take bus Nr. 1 Töss-bound till "Loki")
Splurge
Contact
Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland.
In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti.
Today Winterthur is a service centre, but many people make use of its proximity to Zurich, which is only 20 minutes by train.
The city is located in a basin south and east of the Töss river. The Eulach, a little river, flows in the middle by the city, because of this the town called "Eulach-City". Zurich lies southwest of Winterthur. During Roman times the city was known as Vitudurum/Vitodurum. The counts of Kyburg founded the city in 1175. The charter included extensive privileges for the town. In 1264 the Habsburg family inherited Winterthur. They sold it to the city of Zurich in 1467.
The church of St. Laurenz in the city centre dates from 1264, the town hall was built in 1781, the assembly hall in 1865.
The city hall Stadthaus, in which the concerts of the Musikkollegium take place, was built by Gottfried Semper.
The population of Winterthur is about 98,000. Winterthur also acts as a gateway to the rural parts of the Canton of Zurich as a centre for shopping, leisure and entertainment, but also as a train station of major significance.
The town is renowned for its institute of higher education Technikum, which is the largest school of technology in Switzerland. The institute has recently teamed up with schools from Zurich and is now known as Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur (ZHW).
Economically, Winterthur was one of the homes of Switzerland's rail industry and an industrial centre. The rail industry and other heavy industry have largely disappeared. Amongst the most significant companies was Sulzer Brothers, today's Sulzer Ltd., Sulzer AG, commonly abbreviated to Sulzer. Textile production declined even earlier on. Also the Rieter company come from Winterthur.
Switzerland's largest bank, and one of the world's large banks, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), since 1998 UBS AG, was also founded in Winterthur.
Among other commercial organizations, Winterthur is home to Switzerland's largest insurance business "Winterthur Insurance". The company is the largest in Switzerland and is in Europe's top 10. Today's Winterthur Group was founded in the city in 1875. Winterthur has become identified with this as an insurance capital, sometimes masking its reputations for international conferences and music.
Musikfestwochen, in late August and early September, sees Winterthur’s Old Town taken over for live music of all kinds, in the street and bars as well as in concert venues. Its chamber orchestra, Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur, which also plays at the Zurich Opera is exceptional.
In 1989, Winterthur received the Wakker Prize for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage.
Winterthur is connected to Germany and Italy by direct trains and enjoys excellent links to Zurich Airport. It is also a regional transportation hub: the A1 motorway from Geneva through to St. Margrethen connects in Winterthur with the A4 motorway heading north toward Schaffhausen and the A7 motorway heading close to the Swiss-German border at Kreuzlingen. There are also roads leading to other places such as Turbenthal. The Station of Winterthur is one of the highest frequent Stations of Switzerland. FC Winterthur is the local football side.
Tourism
Though Winterthur does not attract people to itself like other cities in Switzerland might, it has its own grace and reasons to invite people to visit.
Winterthur is home of different types of renowned museums and art galleries. With seventeen museums is Winterthur a "town of museen" in switzerland. There are a lot of famous museums among them are:
# Oskar Reinhart Collections - Am Römerholz
# Oskar Reinhart Collections - Am Stadtgarten
# Kunstmuseum Winterthur
# Villa Flora
# Fotomuseum Winterthur
# Technorama
External links
