September 20, 2019
When most people think of Zürich, they may think of banking or the Bahnhofstrasee with the expensive shopping stores. I associate Zürich with my favorite chocolate shops- Sprüngli or Teuscher.
Sprüngli
The Confiserie Sprüngli is a Swiss luxury confectionery manufacturer founded in 1836 and internationally known for its signature macarons called "Luxemburgerli".
How many do you want? Choose your box size.
The company was founded in 1836 when Rudolf Sprüngli bought a confectioner's shop in Zürich. He started producing chocolates, as David Sprüngli & Fils, in 1845 and opened the shop on Paradeplatz in 1859. In 1892, the chocolate-producing branch of the business split off from the confectionery and now operates independently as Lindt & Sprüngli. Lindt in the United States is made in New Hampshire.
"In 1956, Richard Sprüngli took over the confiserie and positioned it as a luxury brand. A year later, Sprüngli sold the first Luxemburgerli, a macaron invented by a Sprüngli confectioner from Luxembourg; they are now the company's flagship product of which about 650 kilograms (1,430 lb) are produced daily. Since 1994, the family-owned company has been led by the brothers Tomas and Milan Prenosil, sixth-generation descendants of Rudolf Sprüngli.
Sprüngli employs some 1,000 staff, has annual sales of more than 100 million Swiss francs and a range of 2,000 products, including ice cream and bakery goods. The company has 19 retail outlets, some of which also include restaurants. The main store is located on Bahnhofstrasse and Paradeplatz, while smaller outlets are found elsewhere in Zürich, as well as in Basel. Bern, Winterthur and Zug.
Sprüngli products are also delivered worldwide by air mail and, since 1961, have been produced in Dietikon near Zürich.
When the Easter bunny visits my house, he always leaves Sprüngli truffles and chocolate Easter bunnies. He sometimes leaves them for my birthday, too. Yeah!!! Delicious!!!!
When Michael had a work project in Zürich, I spent much time on the Bahnhofstrasse and at the park at the end of the road near the lake.
The children coming back from playing at the larger park
I loved to see the bankers whom worked on the Bahnhofstrasse stop in at Sprüngli and get their wife a truffle of the day. The ladies at the counter will wrap up an individual chocolate, too. I always thought this was such a romantic gesture.
I can assure you they are more than exceptional!
The pastry counter at Sprüngli tempts the shopper. This is a shop for all the senses. I could only eat a tiny slice of the truffle cake. I assume it is very rich in taste.
The Sprüngli cafe on Paradeplatz is a traditional meeting-place of the elderly ladies of Zürich's upper class. Local folklore has it that young men who attend the café alone may signal their availability to these well-to-do women by turning over their coffee spoons in their cups. But according to the company's director, this is a persistent myth reflecting Zurich's more puritanical past, when the Sprüngli café was one of the few places where upper-class women could talk to strangers without risking their reputation."
Teuscher
"More than 80 years ago in a small town in the Swiss Alps, a master chocolate maker embarked on a path that would make him one of the world’s greatest chocolatiers.
Dolf thoroughly searched throughout the world to locate the finest cocoa, marzipan, fruits, nuts, and other ingredients and after years of experimenting, skillfully blended these into his now famous recipes.
The kitchens in Zürich today make more than a hundred varieties of chocolates using these original recipes which have now passed from father to son. In the tradition, the world’s finest and most expensive natural ingredients are blended together using absolutely no chemicals, additives, or preservatives."
Teuscher is far more expensive than Sprüngli but I actually prefer Sprüngli.
The Grossmünster ("great minster") is a Romanesque-style Protestant church. It is one of the four major churches in the city (the others being the Fraumüünster, Predigerkirche and St. Peterskirche). Its congregation forms part of the Evangelical Reformed Church off the Canton off Zürich. The core of the present building near the banks of the Limmat was constructed on the site of a Carolingian church, which was, according to legend, originally commissioned by Charlemagne. Construction of the present structure commenced around 1100 and it was inaugurated around 1220.
The twin towers of the Grossmünster are regarded as perhaps the most recognized landmark in Zürich. Architecturally, the church is considered Romanesque in style and thus a part of the first pan-European architectural trend since Imperial Roman architecture. In keeping with the Romanesque architectural style, Grossmünster offers a great carved portal featuring medieval columns with grotesques adorning the capitals.
The panels tell the story of the founding of Zürich. Great visuals so you don't need to read.
The Grossmünster was a monastery church, vying for precedence with the Fraumünster across the Limmat throughout the Middle Ages. According to legend, the Grossmünster was founded by Charlemagne, whose horse fell to its knees over the tombs of Felix and Regula, Zürich's patron saints. The legend helps support a claim of seniority over the Fraumünster, which was founded by Louis the German, Charlemagne's grandson. Recent archaeological evidence confirms the presence of a Roman burial ground at the site.
The two towers were first erected between 1487 and 1492. Originally, they had high wooden steeples, which were destroyed by fire in 1763, following which the present neo-Gothic tops were added (completed 1787). Richard Wagner, composer, theater director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas, is known to have mocked the church's appearance as that of two pepper dispensers
Fraumünster (with the green steeple) The Fraumünster, Women's Minster, but often wrongly translated to (Our) Lady Minster) is a church built on the remains of a former abbey for aristocratic women which was founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zürich, Uri, and the Albis forest, and granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority.
The choir of the abbey includes 5 large stained glass windows designed by artist Marc Chagall and installed in 1970. Each of the 5 has a dominant color and depicts a Biblical story. They are best seen early in the morning. Today, you can not photograph the windows. Years ago, it was allowed and I did photograph them.
St. Peterskirche, St. Peter
The church tower and the nave of St. Peter do not have the same owner: Until the French Revolution the tower belonged to the former city epublic of Zürich, since 1803 to the city of Zürich. Belfry and bells belong to the Reformed Church of the canton of Zürich, as well as the staircase leading to the tower.
The church tower was primarily used for fire police duties, and in 1340 AD the first fire guard was set in duty. In the pre- and early Romanesque area, St. Peter had no church tower. The first massive three-story tower was built in early 13th century AD. The first floor with Romanesque ribbed vault dates back to that period. In 1450, the tower was increased to 64 meters (210 ft) (as of today) and a pitched (helmet) roof was attached. That 24 meters (79 ft) high part of the tower was in 1996 re-covered with 42,000 larch shingles from the Engadine Valley, since then being the only wooden roof in Zürich.
Towards the end of the 13th century, a mechanical church clock was installed. In 1366, it was renewed and got one only dial that was directed towards the Limmat and only displayed the hours. Around 1460, the sense of time has been refined by half on the quarter-hour strike, and in 1538 the striking clock was replaced, and all four facades got dials. Replacements of the clock mechanism followed in 1593/94 and 1675 and 1826. In 1844, a new movement with quarter-hour strike was installed; the electrification of the work was carried out in 1873. In 1972 the balance was replaced by a fully automatic master clock in the clock room of the St. Peter's tower, and in 1996 the electrified mechanical movement of 1844 was shut down and replaced by a central computer system. The clock tower of St. Peter was for centuries Zürich's 'official local time', and all public city clocks had to conform to it. The church clock of St. Peter has the largest tower clock face in Europe, the outer diameter of each of the four church clocks measures 8.64 meters (28.3 ft), the minute hand 5.73 meters (18.8 ft), the hour hand 5.07 meters (16.6 ft), and the minute crack of the large pointer measures 0.455 meters (1.5 ft).
This gallery in the Old Town section was displaying works of Salvator Dali.
Zürich's medieval houses, contorted, narrow lanes and guild and town halls from the Renaissance period offer an attractive backdrop for world-class entertainment. A tour of the Old Town lets visitors experience Zürich's multifaceted past.
clean - clean - clean They are always cleaning! The sign on the vehicles says something like this: "with this in the city, it is as clean as it is at home".
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