1900 there were in the town 140,803 German-speaking persons,
5100 Italian-speaking, 2586 French-speaking, ana 415 Romonsch-speaking.
In 1888 the corresponding figures were 90,500, 1135,
1320, and 148. In 1900 the town numbered 102,794 Protestants,
43,655 “Catholics” (Roman or “Old”)
and 2713 Jews. In 1888
the religious figures were 70,970, 20,571 and 1221 respectively,
while in 1850 the numbers were 32,763, 2664 and 56. The international
character of the town has thus become much more marked.
This is partly due to the immigration of many foreign workmen,
and partly to the arrival of Russian and Polish exiles. Both have
added a turbulent cosmopolitan element to the town, in which
the Socialist party is strong, and is increasing in power and
influence, even in matters concerned with civic government.
Of the old buildings the finest and most important is the Gross Münster (or Propstei), on the right bank of the Limmat. This was originally the church of the king's tenants, and in one of the chapels the bodies of Felix, Regula and Exuperantius, the patron saints of the city, were buried, the town treasury being formerly kept above this chapel. The present building was erected at two periods (c. 1090-1150 and c. 1225-1300), the high altar having been consecrated in 1278. The towers were first raised above the roof at the end of the 15th century and took their present form in 1779. The chapter consisted of twenty-four secular canons; it was reorganized at the Reformation (1526), and suppressed in 1832. On the site of the canons' houses stands a girls' school (opened 1853), but the fine Romanesque cloisters (12th and 13th centuries) still remain. There is a curious figure of Charlemagne in a niche on one of the towers; to him is attributed the founding or reform of the chapter. On the left bank of the Limmat stands the other great church of Zürich, the Frau Münster (or Abtei), founded for nuns in 853, by Louis the German. The high altar was consecrated in 1170; but the greater part of the buildings are of the 13th and 14th centuries. It was in this church that the relics of the three patron saints of the town were preserved till the Reformation, and it was here that the burgomaster Waldmann was buried in 1489. There were only twelve nuns of noble family, comparatively free from the severer monastic vows; the convent was suppressed in 1524. Of the other old churches may be mentioned St Peter's, the oldest parish church, though the present buildings date in part from the 13th century only (much altered in the early 18th century), and formerly the meeting-place of the citizens; the Dominican church (13th century), in the choir of which the cantonal library of 80,000 volumes has been stored since 1873; the church of the Austin friars (14th century), now used by the Old Catholics, and the Wasserkirche. The last-named church is on the site of a pagan holy place, where the patron saints of the city were martyred; since 1631 it has housed the Town Library, the largest in Switzerland, which contains 170,000 printed volumes and 4500 MSS. (among these being letters of Zwingli, Bullinger and Lady Jane Grey), as well as a splendid collection of objects from the lake dwellings of Switzerland. The building itself was erected from 1479 to 1484, and near it is a statue of Zwingli, erected in 1885. The existing town-hall dates from 1698, while the gild houses were mostly rebuilt in the 18th century. One of the most magnificent of the newer buildings is the Swiss National Museum, behind the railway station. This museum, which was opened in 1898, contains a wonderful collection of Swiss antiquities (especially medieval) and art treasures of all kinds, some of which are placed in rooms of the actual date, removed from various ancient buildings. There are some fine old fountains (the oldest dating back to 1568). There are several good bridges, Roman traces being seen in the case of the Niederbrücke (now called the Rathausbrücke). The mound of the Lindenhof was formerly crowned by the king's house, which disappeared in the 13th century, and the hillock was planted with limes as early as 1422.
The town is noted for its numerous clubs and societies, and is the intellectual capital of German-speaking Switzerland. Cotton-spinning and the manufacture of machinery are two leading industries, but by far the most important is the silk-weaving industry. This flourished in Zürich in the 12th and 13th centuries, but disappeared about 1420; it was revived by the Protestant exiles (such as the Muralti and Orelli families) from Locarno (1555) and by the Huguenot refugees from France (1682 and 1685). The value of the silk annually exported (mainly to France, the United States and England) is estimated at over three millions sterling. Zürich is the banking centre of Switzerland. Besides the excellent primary and secondary schools, there are the Cantonal School, including a gymnasium and a technical side (opened 1842), and a high school for girls (opened 1875). The Cantonal University and the Federal Polytechnic School are housed in the same building, but have no other connexion. The university was opened in 1833, no doubt as a successor to the ancient chapter school at the Gross Münster, said to date back to Charlemagne's time — hence its name the Carolinum — reorganized at the Reformation, and suppressed in 1832. The Polytechnic School, opened in 1855, includes seven main sections (industrial chemistry, industrial mechanics, engineering, training of scientific and mathematical teachers, architecture, forestry and agriculture, and the military sciences), besides a general philosophical and political science department. The Polytechnic School has good collections of botanical specimens and of engravings. Near it is the observatory (1542 ft.). There are also in Zürich many institutions for special branches of education — e.g. veterinary surgery, music, industrial art, silk-weaving, &c.
The earliest inhabitants of the future site of Zürich were the lake dwellers. The Celtic Helvetians had a settlement on the Lindenhof when they were succeeded by the Romans, who established a custom station here for goods going to and coming from Italy; during their rule Christianity was introduced early in the 3rd century by Felix and Regula, with whom Exuperantius was afterwards associated. The district was later occupied by the Alamanni, who were conquered by the Franks.
The name Zürich is possibly derived from the Celtic dur (water). It is first mentioned in 807 under the form “Turigus,” then in 853 as “Turegus.” The true Latinized form is Turicum, but the false form Tigurum was given currency by Glareanus and held its ground from 1512 to 1748. It is not till the 9th century that we find the beginnings of the Teutonic town of Zürich, which arose from the union of four elements: (1) the royal house and castle on the Lindenhof, with the king's tenants around, (2) the Gross Münster, (3) the Frau Münster, (4) the community of “free men” (of Alamannian origin) on the Zürichberg. Similarly we can distinguish four stages in the constitutional development of the town: (i.) the gradual replacing (c. 1250) of the power of the abbess by that (real, though not nominal) of the patricians, (ii.) the admittance of the craft gilds (1336) to a share with the patricians in the government of the town, (iii.) the granting of equal political rights (1831) to the country districts, hitherto ruled as subject lands by the burghers, and (iv.) the reception as burghers of the numerous immigrants who had settled in the town (town schools opened in 1860, full incorporation in 1893).
The Frankish kings had special rights over their tenants, were the protectors of the two churches, and had jurisdiction over the free community. In 870 the sovereign placed his powers over all four in the hands of a single official (the Reichsvogt), and the union was still further strengthened by the wall built round the four settlements in the 10th century as a safeguard against Saracen marauders and feudal barons. The “Reichsvogtei” passed to the counts of Lenzburg (1063-1173), and then to the dukes of Zähringen (extinct 1218). Meanwhile the abbess of the Benedictine Frau Münster had been acquiring extensive rights and privileges over all the inhabitants, though she never obtained the criminal jurisdiction. The town flourished greatly in the 12th and 13th centuries, the silk trade being introduced from Italy. In 1218 the “Reichsvogtei” passed back into the hands of the king, who appointed one of the burghers as his deputy, the town thus becoming a free imperial city under the nominal rule of a distant sovereign. The abbess in 1234 became a princess of the empire, but power rapidly passed from her to the council which she had originally named to look after police, &c., but which came to be elected by the burghers, though the abbess was still “the lady of Zürich.” This council (all powerful since 1304) was made up of the representatives of certain knightly and rich mercantile families (the “patricians”), who excluded the craftsmen from all share in the government, though it was to these last that the town was largely indebted for its rising wealth and importance.
In October 1291 the town made an alliance with Uri and
