WELCOME TO WINTERTHUR

WELCOME
TO WINTERTHUR
partner of

Winterthur is the sixth-largest city in Switzerland
with a population of over 100,000. But despite the
recent spate of growth, it has kept its unique character
and charm. It’s still easy to fi nd your way
round Winterthur, both in the city centre and in
the residential quarters. Life pulsates day and
night in the city’s historic heart, but peaceful
fi elds and forests around are always close. The
quality of life in Winterthur, a city set idyllically
among seven wooded hills, is hard to beat.
WHERE LIFE IS WORTH
LIVING

Winterthur’s inhabitants are fond of their city
because it has everything that makes life worth living,
including cultural diversity unique in Switzerland
for a city this size, a wide range of education
options, attractive and affordable accommodation,
and a future-oriented job market. Moreover, it takes
less time to get to Zurich (20 minutes by train) and to
Zurich airport (15 minutes by train) than it does from
one end of town to the other.

It’s easy to live well in Winterthur. Award-winning
cooks treat guests to culinary delights, the Golden-
berg terrace invites walkers in the nearby woods
to rest and enjoy the magnifi cent view of the city,
in the Roter Turm bar – 90 metres up – drinks taste
even better than at ground level, parties at Albani
and Bolero end late …
People fond of outdoor life will fi nd what they
look for and more. No city in Switzerland has a
higher ratio of green space; in fact, two thirds of the
WHERE THERE’S NO TIME
TO GET BORED

municipality area are taken up by woods, fi elds and
meadows. A special treat for families with children
is the Bruderhaus wildlife park, where wolves are
among the animals that can be observed in a natural
habitat.
Never a boring moment for sports lovers, either.
Golf in Kyburg, Stadel and Winterberg, tennis on
courts set among villas, skateboarding and indoor
climbing facilities, beach soccer and ice skating at
the Deutweg sports complex, and much more. The
choice is enormous, with something to suit all tastes.
Most eye-catching of all, though, are the cyclists.
Winterthur has a network of bicycle paths and lanes
adding up to 175 kilometres, which has given it the
national reputation of a cycle city.

Culture has a long tradition in Winterthur. The city
boasts 16 museums, including the Oskar Reinhart
collection “Am Römerholz” with its masterpieces of
European art from the 14th to the 20th century and
the Fotomuseum, both internationally renowned.
The Casinotheater Winterthur has become a centre
of German-language comedy art, the Swiss Science
Center Technorama makes technology and science
an accessible experience for young and old.
WHERE YOU ARE
SPOILT FOR CHOICE

The extremely diverse cultural agenda also com-
prises a series of festivals – Afro-Pfi ngsten at Whit-
sun, Winterthurer Musikfestwochen in August and
the International Short Film Festival in November.
Just as the musicals staged at City Halle and the
traditional procession of the town’s technology
college graduates, these events attract thousands
of people, many of them from afar. Add to this the
regular fare of exhibitions, fi lms, concerts, readings,
theatre and dance performances of all kinds – it soon
becomes obvious that Winterthur’s residents are
spoilt for choice when it comes to arts and culture.

People living in Winterthur appreciate the fact
that everything is close at hand. Despite its population
of over 100,000, Winterthur has retained the
charm of closeness. It is big enough to provide
everything a city should, yet also small enough to
make personal encounters commonplace. Be it in the
local shops, at the weekly market in the historic
centre of town, at one of the local festivals in the
suburbs or at the Albanifest, Europe’s largest annual
city festival.
WHERE QUALITY OF LIFE
IS AT HOME

Houses and apartments refl ect the nature of a
town as a whole. Winterthur offers its own unique
mix of romantic apartments in old city-centre
houses, villas with park-like gardens, contemporary
dwellings in formerly industrial areas and sus -
tainable housing projects in all parts of town. Despite
dynamic growth, Winterthur has never lost its
human touch, with accommodation supplemented
by generous green spaces, trees lining the roads,
new park areas and several prize-winning squares.

WHERE LEARNING
MEETS PRACTICE
A large number of young people are studying
in Winterthur. The largest schools of further education
are the Ausbildungszentrum Winterthur (AZW),
MSW-Winterthur for technical and engineering
stud ies and Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte
Wissenschaften (ZHAW), the Zurich University of
Applied Sciences.

ZHAW is one of the largest multi-faculty univer-
sities of applied sciences in Switzerland with subjects
as diverse as aviation science, international management
and healthcare studies. One specifi c strength
of these practice-oriented Bachelor’s, Master’s and
post-graduate studies are the close ties and knowledge
transfer that is cultivated with local companies,
for instance at the Technopark location.
Thanks to foreign students coming for guest
semesters, Winterthur has become even more
international. Also contributing to the international
touch is the increasing number of senior managers
of international companies and institutions who are
making Winterthur their home and, in part, sending
their children to one of the international schools that
supplement the already rich selection of schools in
town.

Winterthur has a lot to offer to the corporate
world. The quality of life attracts highly educated professionals
from other parts of Switzerland and from
abroad. Offi ce and factory space is less expensive
than in nearby Zurich, taxes are low by European
standards, and Zurich airport is a mere quarter of
an hour away.
WHERE WORK SHAPES
THE FUTURE

There are still a lot of people working for
Winterthur’s traditional industrial fi rms such as
Sulzer, Rieter and Zimmer, companies that have carried
the name of Winterthur around the globe. Currently,
however, it is especially young and innovative
companies in the areas of high-tech engineering,
medical technology, energy effi ciency and healthcare
economics that are creating jobs. Winterthur also
has a long tradition in the fi eld of insurance, epitomized
by AXA Winterthur and the presence of
various health insurers. With its ideal location and
superb infrastructure, Winterthur is a natural domicile
for multinational corporations as well as for small
and medium sized enterprises.

Pioneers such as Johann Jacob Sulzer, Johann
Jacob Rieter, Charles Brown (founder of Schweizerische
Lokomotiv- und Maschinenfabrik) and Walter
Steiner (manufacturer of Stewi, a rotary clothes
dryer) have contributed to global technical innovation.
This pioneering spirit is still alive in Winterthur
today. While some former industrial buildings are
being converted into trendy homes, other industrial-age
production sites now increasingly house upand-coming
enterprises which, in future, may play
their part in changing the world.
WHERE PEOPLE ARE
INNOVATIVE BY TRADITION

This rich industrial tradition and business-
friendly environment are an ideal breeding ground
for pioneers and entrepreneurs to develop and market
innovative technologies and services. Thanks to
the proximity of the Zurich University of Applied
Sciences and other practice-oriented educational
institutions, there is a vibrant knowledge exchange
between research and production-for-market underway
in both directions. Winterthur was and is a perfect
location for people committed to contributing
to a better future.

w Sixth-largest city in Switzerland with
over 100,000 inhabitants
w 15 minutes by train or car to Zurich
international airport
w 20 minutes by train or car to Zurich City
w Winterthur main station: fourth most
frequented station in Switzerland
w City located between seven hills
w City with the largest proportion of woodland
in Switzerland
w More than 4,500 companies
w More than 56,000 jobs
w Around 28,000 people commuting
to Winterthur daily
WHERE IT’S WORTH
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK

Geneva
w Over 6,000 students enrolled at Zurich University
of Applied Sciences
w More than 400 restaurants
w 16 museums, 7 theaters, 7 public libraries
w Over 300 sports clubs and associations
w More than 50 public sports facilities
and playgrounds
w Network of over 175 km of bicycle paths
and lanes
w European competence center for photography
w Home of Swiss comedy scene
w Only Science Center in Switzerland
w Around 420,000 square meters of publicly
accessible green zones
FRANCE
Bern
Basel
ITALY
Schaffhausen
GERMANY
Constance
Winterthur
Zurich St. Gallen
Lucerne
AUSTRIA
Schaffhausen
Zurich
Airport
Zurich
Lucerne
15 min.
20 min.
Zug
Constance
50 min.
Winterthur
40 min.
Rapperswil
St. Gallen

WWW.WINTERTHUR.CH

Produced by
Stadt Winterthur/City of Winterthur
Standortförderung Region Winterthur/Location Promotion Winterthur Region
Winterthur Tourismus/ Winterthur Tourism
Pictures by
Stadt Winterthur/City of Winterthur
Standortförderung Region Winterthur/Location Promotion Winterthur Region
Winterthur Tourismus/ Winterthur Tourism
Bolero Lifestyle Club AG
Casinotheater Winterthur
Kistler Instrumente AG
Landbote/Heinz Diener
maza.ch/ Winterthurer Musikfestwochen
Max Schmid
Michael Lio
Peter Bolliger
Restaurant Goldenberg/Susanne Cetkovic
SIS Swiss International School Winterthur
Stefan Kubli
Sulzer
Swiss Science Center Technorama
Technopark Winterthur
ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Texts by
Schreibwerkstatt GmbH
Translated by
English Language Services, Martin Striegel
Designed by
www.strichpunkt.ch
Printed by
Peter Gehring AG
Version
August 2010

Location Promotion
Winterthur Region
Im Hauptbahnhof
CH-8401 Winterthur
Phone +41 52 267 67 97
offi ce@standort-winterthur.ch
www.standort-winterthur.ch
Winterthur Tourism
Im Hauptbahnhof
CH-8401 Winterthur
Phone +41 52 267 67 00
tourismus@win.ch
www.winterthur-tourismus.ch
City of Winterthur
Informationsdienst
Stadthaus
Phone +41 52 267 51 51
informationsdienst@win.ch
www.stadt.winterthur.ch