Zurich
The population of 370,000 makes Zürich Switherland's biggest city. The canton, also called Zurich, hosts 1.3 million citizens and is thusly the country's most densely populated area. The city of Zurich is situated near Lake Zurich, where the lake and the Limmat River meet. The city was first established as a Roman post, its former Roman name was Turicum on the territory of present-day Lindenhof. This happened in the year 15 B.C. In the 10th century , Zurich gained the rights of a town, and not much later in the beginning of the 13th century granted the status of a free city.In the recent years, Zurich has become a lively and worthwhile destination. Thanks to the liberalization of the cultural, entertainment and gastronomy sections of the Zurich economy, there has been a significant change in what the country offers. The very cosmopolitan population has helped, as might be expected in making Zurich a truly enjoyable and heterogeneous city of the world.
The language that is spoken on an everyday basis in Zurich is a Zurich dialect of German that sounds sadly nothing like the standard German, however, most speakers of the dialect understand standard German as well as English, French, and Italian, mainly because of the fact that Switzerland borders with all those countries.
Although Zurich is best known as a business centre and a clean strict place, it has an enormous cultural appeal. In the city there are old Churches, for example the 'Grossmünster' and the 'Fraumünster' - fascinating with their stained glass windows created by Marc Chagall; also there are various art galleries with the finest collections. After all, Zurich is where the avant-garde Dadaist movement began, and where James Joyce wrote his most famous novel - Ulysses. There is also the city's Museum of Fine Arts housing one of Europe's most comprehensive art collections featuring 15th-century religious iconsas well as modern works of art by such artists as Picasso, Gaugin, Cezanne or Dali.
Another great quality of Zurich is its wide opportunities of amusement, a several days in the city will give anyone a chance to make sure that people here do not go tied up to their briefcases. Here daylight scenery and cafes are as excellent as the nightlife with its booming vigor, the exciting and varying opportunities such as jazzy bars and pop discos or gorgeous cabarets or smoky exotic and mysterious clubs.