Kunsthaus Zurich

The Kunsthaus holds one of the most important collections of Swiss art, and enough beyond it to fill an afternoon without repeating a country. The 1910 building by Karl Moser and Robert Curjel was extended in 1925, 1958 and 1976 before David Chipperfield's block opened across Heimplatz in 2021, enlarging the museum by more than eighty per cent and giving the Impressionists and the post-war rooms space to breathe. The core is Ferdinand Hodler, whose mountain paintings look different at scale, and Alberto Giacometti, whose thin figures the museum owns in real depth. Around them sit Fuseli's dream scenes, a room of Munch unusual to find outside Norway, Monet water lilies, and a modern wing running through Rothko, Beuys and Bacon. Labels are in German and English throughout.

The main sights

• The Hodler rooms - Swiss landscape and figure painting at the scale it was made for.
• The Giacometti holdings - one of the deepest collections of his sculpture and drawing.
• The Chipperfield building - the 2021 extension across Heimplatz, linked by an underground passage.
• The Fuseli works - the Zurich-born painter's dream and nightmare scenes.

When to go

Closed on Monday, with a late evening midweek that is the quietest time to see the big rooms. Major loan exhibitions sell timed tickets and fill the weekends, so book those ahead or come on a weekday morning. Winter suits it, since the collection is indoors and Zurich weather in January is not an argument for walking.

Before you go

Two buildings and a tunnel mean a lot of walking, and the split collection makes it easy to miss a whole wing; take the plan at the desk. Entry is expensive by museum standards and temporary shows cost extra on top. Parts of the collection rotate off view without notice, and the new building's grey halls leave some visitors cold.

Nearby

The Schauspielhaus faces it across Heimplatz and the old town lies ten minutes downhill.

Key facts