Winterthur Audio Tours

Winterthur calls itself 'Winti' and occupies a position in the Swiss urban hierarchy roughly analogous to what Sheffield is in England or Tampere in Finland: a serious industrial city in the shadow of a larger neighbour, with a culture and confidence that the comparison does not quite capture. The Union Bank of Switzerland, which became UBS, was founded here. Sulzer and Rieter, nineteenth-century engineering firms that made the city's reputation, are still present in modified forms. The railway station is the fourth busiest in Switzerland, which is quite something for a city of 115,000.

The old town runs along Steinberggasse and Marktgasse, with the Church of St Laurenz visible from most of it.

The Stadthaus, designed by Gottfried Semper, hosts the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the oldest orchestra in Switzerland, which has been running since 1629. Under conductor Hermann Scherchen between 1922 and 1950 it premiered works by Stravinsky, Bartok, Milhaud, and Hindemith, making Winterthur temporarily one of the most important new music cities in Europe. That history sits quietly in the building without demanding much attention.