Solothurn Old Town

Solothurn was rebuilt in the eighteenth century with money and taste borrowed from France, and the result is the most consistently baroque town centre in the country: pale facades, a broad square, fountains with painted figures and the cathedral of St Ursus rising above a wide flight of steps. The town has a long-running attachment to the number eleven, worked into the cathedral's steps, altars and bells and repeated across the guidebooks and the local beer. Sections of the old bastioned defences survive on the town side, and the Aare runs past below with a promenade and a footbridge to the far bank.

What you actually see

• St Ursus Cathedral - the baroque church above its broad, deliberately counted stairway.
• The main square and fountains - painted figures on stone fountains among pale facades.
• The old bastions - surviving stretches of the town's fortification on the landward side.
• The Aare promenade - the riverbank walk and the view back to the old town roofline.

When to go

Spring to autumn for the riverside and the terraces on the square. Solothurn holds a film festival in January that fills the town and its hotels for a week. Weekday mornings have the market on the square, which is the best time to see the centre in use rather than on display.

Honest expectations

The centre is small and quiet, and quiet is the point: there is no headline sight beyond the cathedral, and a couple of hours exhausts the streets. The number eleven theme is laid on thickly and wears out fast. The cathedral interior is bright but conventional, and several museums keep short afternoon hours.

Nearby

The Aare has boat trips downstream towards Biel, and the Jura ridge rises just north of the town.