# Conrad Gessner

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Content updated: 2026-06-22

The Conrad Gessner monument stands in Zurich’s Old Botanical Garden as a bronze bust on a stone pedestal. The memorial was installed in the garden in 1853. It honours Conrad Gessner, a Zurich humanist scholar, physician, and professor of natural sciences who lived from 1516 to 1565. His bronze likeness rises about 65 centimetres above the stone. Gustav Albert Wegmann designed the monument, while Georg Hoerbst based the bust on Tobias Stimmer’s 1564 painting. The pedestal carries Latin text and Gessner’s family arms. Those details give the work two roles, since it honours a public figure and preserves a family memorial within Zurich. The site also recalls an earlier Gessner monument. A lead bust appeared in 1777, but French forces confiscated it during the Helvetic period and melted it for cannonballs. A stone replacement followed in Zurich around 1820. The damaged stone figure then moved to the present garden, where the Gessner family funded its bronze successor. The monument forms part of Zurich’s history of honouring scientific and cultural figures.

- City: [Zurich](https://mytuur.com/en/city/zurich/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_ConradGessner_68631aeb717a3e13abfb8cac_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Alter_Botanischer_Garten_Zürich_-_Conrad_Gessner_IMG_0807.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_ConradGessner_68631aeb717a3e13abfb8cac_1.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:CHF50_6_front_horizontal.png)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_ConradGessner_68631aeb717a3e13abfb8cac_2.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Conrad_Gesner_by_Tobias_Stimmer2.jpg)

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