Zurich

Switzerland

Zurich, on Lake Zurich in northern Switzerland, is the country's largest city. It began as the Roman customs post of Turicum, grew around the Fraumünster abbey founded in 853, and joined the Swiss Confederation in 1351. From 1519 Huldrych Zwingli led the Swiss Reformation from the Grossmünster, and after his death Heinrich Bullinger headed the Reformed church there; the Zurich Bible was printed in 1531. Jews are recorded from 1273 but were expelled in 1423, and a new community formed after equal rights were granted in 1862. The federal polytechnic, ETH Zurich, founded in 1854, counts Albert Einstein among its alumni, and the city is today a major financial centre.