Basel has been an important commercial, intellectual and cultural meeting point since Celtic times. This is thanks to its location on the River Rhine in the northwest corner of Switzerland, near the point where the borders of Germany, France and Switzerland meet.

Fascinating cityscape
Basel has a fascinating and varied cityscape, from the Old Town with its picturesque facades, fountain-splashed squares and magnificent cathedral, to the more modern districts, graced by striking buildings by such notable contemporary architects as Renzo Piano, Richard Meier and Frank Gehry.

The surrounding region is equally appealing, with the excavated remains of the old Roman town Augusta Raurica nearby, and the natural wonders of the Jura, the Vosges and the Black Forest.

Rich culture
Basel’s cultural riches are immense. The city is a centre for modern design and architecture, and it has several impressive galleries, theatres and music halls as well as more than 30 different museums.

Among them are the renowned Kunstmuseum (one of the world’s oldest art collections open to the public), and the Museum Jean Tinguely, dedicated to the avant-garde artist Jean Tinguely, who was born in Basel.

Switzerland’s first university was founded in Basel in 1460. It attracted humanist scholars like Erasmus of Rotterdam (who is buried in the cathedral), and this in turn helped give Basel a reputation as a city of academic and humanistic excellence and a peaceful, tolerant and welcoming culture.

Bern boasts one of the best preserved medieval cityscapes in Europe, named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983. Its medieval clock tower, cathedral (the nation’s largest ecclesiastical building), ancient sandstone buildings and around 6km (3.7 miles) of picturesque arcades lend the quaint Old Town an almost fairytale atmosphere.

City of bears
Bern was founded in 1191 and, according to legend, it got its name when city founder Berchtold V von Zähringen killed a bear (bär in German) on the Aare peninsula. Ever since, the city has had a particular fascination for bears, and for the last 500 years or so, there have been bear pits in the city centre. A spacious new bear park opened in 2009, where visitors can view the city’s heraldic animal climbing, fishing and playing on the banks of the river Aare.

Swiss capital
As the federal capital of Switzerland, Bern is home to the country’s government, and a visit to the House of Parliament is a must for anyone interested in politics. The city is also well placed (just west of the country’s geographical centre) for excursions to the Alps, the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Mittelland. But it is also worth spending some time in Bern itself. With its many excellent restaurants, bars and wine cellars, its cultural activities, boutique shopping and wide variety of entertainment, there is plenty to experience in the Swiss capital.

Geneva has long been Switzerland’s most cosmopolitan city. It sits at the southwestern end of Lac Léman (the country’s largest lake), astride the River Rhône, with foreground hills rising against a magnificent backdrop of mountains.

The river bisects the city, with the north side as the right bank (Rive Droite) and the south as the left bank (Rive Gauche). The main railway station and the suburbs are to the north of the river and the Old Town to the south of the river.

Geneva was settled since Neolithic times and became an imperial city in 1032, before achieving independence in 1530 and joining the Swiss Confederation in 1814. Its reputation for religious tolerance during the Reformation proved to be a major influence on its subsequent development.

For centuries, exiles from religious or political persecution chose the city as their refuge, from 17th-century English regicides to Lenin in the early 20th century. John Calvin, the Protestant theologian, made his home here in the 1530s from where he led the Reformation in Switzerland.

Switzerland’s famed neutrality has long enticed international organisations to locate their headquarters in Geneva. There are currently around 200, raising the foreign community to 45% of the population. The League of Nations, predecessor of the United Nations, was established here in 1919. Although the UN moved to New York in 1945, Geneva has kept its European office here.

Other important organisations include the International Committee of the Red Cross (founded by the Swiss Henri Dunant in 1863) and the World Health Organisation.
 
The city is also a major banking centre (described by British actor Robert Morley as a ‘city of wealth by stealth’) and plays a significant role in the manufacture of watches, scientific instruments, jewellery and foodstuffs.

Geneva is an expensive city, but clean, efficient and a pleasure to visit with its beautiful Old Town, fine museums and an excellent public transport system. The city enjoys a mild climate with relatively low rainfall. The super-rich community of international civil servants and tax exiles demand good food, top hotels and entertainment and Geneva provides it all. Beneath the stereotypical veneer of diamonds and watches, however, one finds a tolerant and safe society with the Genevois strangely similar to the British – reserved but courteous.

Synonymous with international banking, Zurich (Zürich or, more familiarly, Züri) has a financial and cultural importance that belies its modest size. The largest city in Switzerland, Zurich promotes itself as ‘Downtown Switzerland’. The historic centre is compact enough to be explored on foot.

Zurich is located on Switzerland’s central plain, with the elevation rising towards the south and the Alps. Positioned at the northern tip of the Zürichsee (Lake Zurich), the city’s fine lakeside promenades and expensive houses are prominent and can be spotted along both shores.

Zurich’s most familiar sights are, without a doubt, the Fraumünster and Grossmünster churches, which solemnly face each other across the River Limmat. The Old Town spans this river, and some of the most interesting lanes and buildings are clustered along its banks. The nearby Lindenhof was once the site of a Roman customs post and is a good vantage point.

Surrounding the Old Town, the kreis (districts) of Zurich are arranged clockwise around the city centre, with the numbers corresponding to the last digit in the postcode. In summer, the view of the city is beautiful, with the lake reflecting the mountains and clear blue sky. The winter snowfalls bring a magic of their own.

Zurich dates its origins from 15BC, when the Roman customs post of Turicum was founded. By the 10th century, the town had acquired the status of a city. It was at the centre of the Swiss religious Reformation in the 16th century, under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli. His motto ‘pray and work’ was to have a profound effect on this diligent city, which, by the 19th century, had grown into the commercial and financial centre of Switzerland.

The modern Zurich is a city of bankers in a country of banks. This concentration of wealth can most readily be seen along the Bahnhofstrasse, flanked by lime trees. All the major Swiss banks have a presence here, notably at the Paradeplatz, where elegant shops and designer boutiques line the street, interspersed with trendy bars and attractive cafes.

Other riches lie in the city’s excellent universities – Zurich is a powerhouse for research, with public-private partnerships leading to innovations both in design and the high-tech sector.

The city also has a strong cultural presence – there are over 50 museums, art galleries, auction houses, the opera, orchestras and the Schauspielhaus theatre, as well as a number of performance spaces that encourage contemporary artists in all media.

For those who find the comfortable burgher lifestyle a little too tame, there are always alternative places to seek out. This is, after all, the city that saw the birth of the artistic movement of Dadaism – the antithesis of conformity.