Fraumünster

Fraumünster is a Zurich church built on the remains of a Benedictine abbey for aristocratic women. Its abbess once held religious and political authority in the city. Founded for Hildegard by Louis the German, the abbey received lands around Zurich, Uri and the Albis forest. Münsterhof preserves the name of the former abbey. The church combines a Romanesque chancel, a vaulted transept, a Gothic appearance and a nave renovated in 1911. Paul Bodmer painted frescos in the cloister. Marc Chagall designed the choir windows, which present biblical scenes through distinct dominant colours. Augusto Giacometti created a tall window for the north transept.

The crypt is the church’s oldest surviving part. Multimedia displays trace the building’s development from Romanesque origins towards its Gothic form. The church houses the largest organ in the canton of Zurich. Katharina von Zimmern supported the abbey’s dissolution during the Reformation led by Huldrych Zwingli. Fraumünster remains a parish church within Zurich’s Evangelical Reformed Church. The former convent’s traditions continue through the Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster. Switzerland lists Fraumünster as a Class A object of national cultural importance. Its stained glass, crypt and architecture bring Zurich’s religious, political and artistic history together in one place.