Free Walking Tour Rapperswil: Bridge, Castle, Roses

Rapperswil Walking Tour Stops, from the Bridge to the Zoo

1. 1

   Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden

   

   Stand on the boards and look along the deck: 841 metres of wood stretching across the Obersee, the upper part of Lake Zurich, which makes this the longest wooden bridge in Switzerland. It opened on 6 April 2001 as a footbridge, running right beside the Seedamm, the stone and metal causeway that carries two bridges of its own. Both link Rapperswil in the canton of St. Gallen with the village of Hurden in the canton of Schwyz, so a stroll across is also a walk between two cantons.

   The new bridge is the latest in a very long line. The water here is the narrowest and shallowest part of the whole lake, and people have been crossing it on wooden structures for thousands of years. At the archaeological site of Hurden Rosshorn, remains of bridges or wooden footpaths go back to the Horgen culture, followed by traces from the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age. Around them stood pile dwelling settlements, at Hurden Seefeld and at the Technikum site in Rapperswil, where an island village of the 17th century BC existed at the same time as some of those crossings. All three sites belong to the UNESCO World Heritage of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.

   The story keeps going: bridge remains from the Hallstatt period in 647 BC, from AD 741 in the Early Middle Ages, and a Roman bridge from AD 165, built under Emperor Marcus Aurelius and six metres wide. After that, ferries carried people across until a new bridge opened in 1360. That medieval bridge then served for centuries as the main traffic route of the whole region, landing at a gate on the town's lakeside.

   Take your time out here; it costs nothing and never closes. Then follow that old traffic route into town: the leg to Fischmarktplatz is 1010 m, about 14 minutes.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Website

   rapperswil-zuerichsee.ch ↗

   Location

   Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Fischmarktplatz

   

   You are now at the southern end of the old town, where it opens towards the harbour. The square is generous and almost perfectly square, with a public fountain in front of the former Heiliggeistspital, the old Holy Spirit hospital. Along the lake side stand the inns that give the place its holiday feel: Schwanen, Steinbock, Schwert, Bellevue, Anker and Du Lac.

   None of this open space existed in the Middle Ages. Right where you stand lay the fortified inner harbour, enclosed by walls, with the lake reaching all the way up to the town walls. Ships could only enter past a wooden portcullis in the Schutzgatterturm, a tower enlarged in 1610. The inner harbour sat roughly where the car park is today, and the walls ran from here along the present row of hotels and restaurants all the way to the defences by the Capuchin monastery.

   In the 1830s Rapperswil tore down most of its fortifications. The inner harbour was filled in and a new outer harbour built with its two prominent breakwaters, and the inns along the shore went up as tourism began to arrive after 1834. So the square you see is really a child of early tourism, laid over a medieval port.

   Before the causeway's railway and road bridge took over, traffic from the wooden lake bridge came through here. It crossed the town from the eastern Halstor at Engelplatz, over the main square and down Fischmarktstrasse to a fortified gate at the Fischmarkt, where the Hecht and Hirschen inns stand now.

   From here it is 470 m, about 7 minutes, to the Kapuzinerkloster; on the way you pass the Curti-Haus.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Fischmarktplatz on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Kapuzinerkloster

   

   At the western tip of the castle hill, on the rocky end called the Endingerhorn, sits a working monastery. Capuchin friars have lived here since 1602, and the house is known well beyond the town for its rose garden and its grotto dedicated to St. Anthony. The monastery church and the gate are freely accessible, and there is a small monastery café if you want to sit for a moment.

   Why Capuchins, and why here? During the upheavals of the Reformation, Rapperswil became a strategic prize. Zurich wanted to neutralise this Catholic bridgehead on the lake, while the Catholic cantons wanted to strengthen it. The Capuchins had come over the Alps only reluctantly, on the Pope's orders, and founded small houses in Altdorf, Stans, Lucerne and Schwyz in quick succession. In February 1596 Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden asked the order to settle in Rapperswil as well.

   After long negotiations the friars were given the most worthless land available: a sloping lump of conglomerate rock running down to the lake, outside the town walls. Clearing the ground took more than a year of blasting. The town supplied the building material, and on 2 September 1602 the council, pushed by the papal nuncio Giovanni della Torre, formally decided to build.

   The list of donors makes a lovely detail. It was opened by a widow, Verena Züger, who gave land near the Krützli; together with a thousand guilders from other citizens, her gift set a standard that none of the later contributions matched, not the abbots, not the Catholic cantons, not the town's own mayor and not even the King of France.

   The Lindenhof is just 100 m away, about 2 minutes uphill along the ridge.

   Local name

   Kloster Rapperswil

   Hours

   Gate and monastery café: Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat 09:00–11:30 & 14:00–17:00, Tue 09:45–11:30 & 14:00–17:00, Sun 11:00–11:30 & 14:00–17:00

   Price

   Free (monastery church / gate freely accessible; tours flat rate CHF 150)

   Location

   Kapuzinerkloster on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Lindenhof

   

   You are now on top of the hill that carries the whole old town. It is a moraine left by the last Ice Age, a rocky conglomerate formed about 20,000 years ago: roughly 590 metres long and 150 metres wide, rising about 30 metres from the shore and surrounded by water on three sides. Only the small eastern part, the Herrenberg, connects to the land side of town.

   The square takes its name from the lime trees, probably planted here in the 13th century by the House of Rapperswil. Today it is a public square, a park and arboretum, and a playground, which makes it a good spot to let children run while you look around. The slope towards the bay of Kempraten is called the Schlosshalde; the opposite side, the Schlosshügel, carries a vineyard and the town's official rose garden facing the harbour.

   Walk to the edge and use the view to put the morning together. Towards Zurich you see the main lake with the islands of Lützelau and Ufnau, with the Uetliberg and the Pfannenstiel in the distance. The other way lies the Obersee with the Buechberg and the mountains towards the Glarus Alps, Speer and Federispitz among them. And down by the causeway you can trace the wooden bridge you started on, heading towards Hurden and the Etzel.

   The Polnische Freiheitssäule stands just 80 m away, a one minute walk.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Lindenhof on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Polnische Freiheitssäule

   

   This is a short stop with an unusual monument. A freestanding column dedicated to Polish liberty stands in the open in front of the castle, and the pairing alone is worth a minute: Polish national memory, planted before a Swiss fortress.

   Take in that contrast before you move on. The reason behind it waits a few steps ahead in the castle, which Polish émigrés turned into their national museum in 1870.

   The castle is only 40 m away, a minute's walk, and you pass the entrance to the Polenmuseum as you arrive.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Polnische Freiheitssäule on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Schloss Rapperswil

   

   The castle crowns the Herrenberg, the eastern end of the hill, and from here it dominated both the old town and the water. Its position was the whole point: protected by the lake on three sides, it controlled the waterway between the Walensee and Lake Zurich at its narrowest, the medieval Gotthard route between Lombardy and Zurich, and the Way of St. James heading to Einsiedeln Abbey.

   It dates from the early 1200s and is first mentioned in 1229, when Rüti Abbey was founded. Count Rudolf II and his son Rudolf III built it, together with the walls of the settlement then called Endingen, when the family moved across the lake from Altendorf, the original Rapperswil. One charming theory for the move: they wanted their own parish church and no longer fancied crossing the lake to attend mass at Busskirch. Like their ancestors, they acted as protectors of Einsiedeln Abbey.

   Since 1870 the castle has housed the Polish National Museum, founded by Polish émigrés. Among them was Count Wladyslaw Broel-Plater, who leased and restored the castle. Castle and museum are listed as Swiss cultural property of national importance, the highest class.

   Going inside costs admission. It is worth it if you are curious about Polish history and the émigré story, or simply want to see the medieval castle from within; if your time is short, the outside and the setting already tell you a lot. Around it you will also spot the cemetery chapel and, to the east, a former small castle that is now the town museum.

   The parish church is right next door, 70 m and a minute away.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–17:00, Mon closed (last admission 16:00; 1 Nov & 24-26 Dec closed)

   Price

   CHF 14.00 adults, CHF 9.00 reduced (AHV/IV/students), CHF 6.00 children (6-16 years), children under 6 free

   Website

   schlossrapperswil.com ↗

   Location

   Schloss Rapperswil on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Stadtpfarrkirche St. Johann

   

   Saint John's parish church stands beside the castle on the Herrenberg, with the Catholic cemetery behind it to the north. A few metres away is the Liebfrauenkapelle, St. Mary's chapel, built in 1489 over the old ossuary. Today it serves as the cemetery chapel and is popular for weddings thanks to its view over the bay of Kempraten.

   The church was born together with the castle. Before Count Rudolf II built it around 1220, the people of Rapperswil had to attend services at Busskirch on the lakeshore, one of the oldest churches around the lake. Even after that, the new church remained legally subordinate to the parish of St. Johann Busskirch and, through it, to Pfäfers Abbey.

   A few human stories cling to these walls. On 24 November 1446, Countess Elisabeth of Toggenburg endowed the All Saints altar with 800 Rhenish guilders, sealed by her and certified by the mayor and council. Since 1737 the Brotherhood of St. Cecilia and Catherine has looked after the church's music, a huge repertoire that includes around 1,000 works by two local composers, Carl Greith and his father Franz Josef Greith. The father wrote the Rütli anthem, the song that greets the “quiet meadow by the lake”.

   On 30 January 1881 a fire partly destroyed the building, and what you see is largely the rebuilding finished in 1885. Entry is free, so step inside if the doors are open.

   From here it is 100 m, about a minute, down to the Hauptplatz.

   Local name

   Stadtpfarrkirche Rapperswil

   Hours

   Daily 09:00–17:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   krj.ch ↗

   Location

   Stadtpfarrkirche St. Johann on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   Hauptplatz

   

   This is the heart of the old town and the largest square inside Rapperswil-Jona's historic centre. It is rectangular, slopes gently towards the lake, and every old town street begins here: Hintergasse, Marktgasse and Seestrasse to the west, Kluggasse, Eiergasse, Webergasse and Rathausstrasse to the east.

   Picture the square cut in half. Until the early 14th century the town's eastern wall ran from north to south along its entire length, down to the lakeside defences at the Fischmarkt. Only when the town expanded eastwards, with Webergasse and Kluggasse, did this become open space inside the walls.

   It became the true centre once the citizens built their first fountain here, not far from the castle and church. The water came through wooden pipes, called Teuchel, over four kilometres from the Tägernau near Jona. Later a town brook was diverted from the river Jona and led through the old town to empty into the lake at today's Fischmarktplatz.

   The square has seen drama, too. After French revolutionary troops under General Nouvion marched in, a liberty tree was raised here on 1 May 1798 and France was hailed as liberator. And when the walls came down, the new road from the canton, the Rickenstrasse, was driven straight into the centre from 1829; connecting it to the square was only possible under police protection against furious landowners.

   The Rathaus is 40 m away, a minute's walk across the square, where the weekly market sets up.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Hauptplatz on Google Maps ↗

9. 9

   Rathaus

   

   The old town hall faces the main square, and this stop is all about its exterior. A “council or court house” is first mentioned here in 1419, but the site is older: it replaced a fortified tower, probably built in the early 13th century by Rudolf II of Rapperswil, as part of the first town wall that ran from the castle and church down to the lakeshore.

   The building in its present form dates from around 1470. The southern tower was added in 1614 and 1615, followed by renovations in 1866 and 1895. In 1902 another floor went on top, and at the same time most of the painted decoration on the west side, with figures and coats of arms, was removed. Photographs taken by Alwina Gossauer in 1865 and 1901 still show how colourful the facade once was, so look at the plain walls and imagine them covered in heraldry.

   The town hall belongs to the Ortsgemeinde, the old citizens' association, and it is still in use. It houses a café and restaurant, the town archives and a collection of stained glass, silverware and paintings by Rapperswil artists, and on Wednesdays the district court sits in the council chamber.

   Next comes the Rosengarten, 300 m and about 4 minutes away, along the lakeshore promenade.

   Hours

   24/7 (exterior only)

   Location

   Rathaus on Google Maps ↗

10. 10

    Rosengarten

    

    Rapperswil treats its roses as part of the town's fabric. Public rose beds run through the town: a scent garden by the monastery, more at the Einsiedlerhaus, and others along the way, all free, without gates and never closed.

    On this route, the roses are your quiet stretch, the last calm moment after the dense history of the hill and before the lively finale at the zoo. Slow down, sit if you find a bench, and let the morning settle.

    The bloom season starts in May and lasts into October. Within that window this is a slow, fragrant wander; outside it you are mostly looking at bare beds, so treat the stop as part of the walk rather than a reason to plan around it.

    The final leg to Knie's Kinderzoo is 660 m, about 11 minutes.

    Hours

    24/7

    Price

    Free

    Website

    rapperswil-jona.ch ↗

    Location

    Rosengarten on Google Maps ↗

11. 11

    Knie's Kinderzoo

    

    The walk ends at a zoo made for children, close to the causeway and Rapperswil station. Designed by the architect Wolfgang Behles, it was opened on 10 June 1962 by the brothers Fredy and Rolf Knie senior, the fifth generation of the famous Knie circus family.

    Elephants have been at the centre of its story from the start. On 15 February 1963 the first Asian elephant born in Switzerland arrived here: Sahib-Fridolin, son of Ceylon and Siam. His mother had no milk and died three months after the birth, so the elephant expert Josef Hack raised the calf by bottle. Siam went on to become a celebrated breeding bull, father of two elephants in Rapperswil and twelve in Paris.

    In 1965 the dolphins Sindbad and Skipper made headlines as the first trained dolphins from Florida shown in an inland European country, and a permanent dolphinarium followed in 1970; it was later closed for animal welfare reasons. The record year was 1976 with 399,331 visitors. Since then a fur seal pool with an underwater window, a pirate ship playground, the first giraffe born here, Baluku, in 1993, and a renewed elephant area with bath, waterfall and mud wallows have been added.

    The zoo charges admission. With children it easily fills a few hours and makes a perfect reward at the end of the walk; adults travelling without kids can enjoy the story from the entrance and head to the station nearby.

    Local name

    Knies Kinderzoo

    Hours

    Daily 09:00–18:00 (1 March to 1 November 2026; last admission 17:30; in February 10:00–16:00)

    Price

    CHF 23.00 adults, CHF 16.00 reduced (AHV/IV), CHF 9.00 children (4-15 years); children from 17:00 CHF 4.00, adults from 17:00 CHF 8.00

    Website

    knieskinderzoo.ch ↗

    Location

    Knie's Kinderzoo on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways Through Rapperswil

Not everyone wants the long bridge leg or a zoo visit. These three cuts keep the heart of the walk and drop what you don't need.

Old town and castle hill only

Stops: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

For anyone arriving in town with limited time and no children in tow. You skip the bridge and the zoo and walk 1200 m, about 18 minutes in total. Everything is free except the castle, and the Polish Museum is optional.

Lake history and the castle

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For history lovers: prehistoric lake crossings, the old harbour, the monastery, the hill and the castle. That is 1770 m and about 26 minutes of walking. The only admission is the castle, if you go inside.

Family finish

Stops: 8, 9, 10, 11

For families who want a short taste of the old town before the animals: main square, town hall, roses, then the zoo. 1000 m and about 16 minutes on foot. Only the zoo charges admission.

How Long the Rapperswil Tour Takes, With and Without Museums

The pure walking time is 42 minutes, and the longest legs sit at the ends: 14 minutes from the bridge into town and 11 minutes from the roses to the zoo. Between the monastery and the town hall the stops are only a minute or two apart, so the middle of the walk feels like one continuous stroll over the hill.

Staying outdoors with a look into the free churches, you need about two hours. Add roughly an hour if you go into the Polish Museum at the castle, and plan the zoo as its own block of at least a couple of hours if you have children with you. The old town variant fits into about an hour and a half, the history variant into a little over two hours with the castle, and the family finish depends entirely on how long the elephants hold everyone's attention.

Before You Set Off in Rapperswil

• Start and finish: The recommended start is the Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden, and the walk ends at Knie's Kinderzoo. You can join at any stop; the order here simply follows the story from the lake up to the castle and back down.
• Getting there: Rapperswil station is served by the S-Bahn Zurich and the Südostbahn, and passenger boats of the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft land close by, so arriving from Zurich by train or by boat both work.
• Best time of day: Start in the morning if you want to fit both the Polish Museum and the zoo into the same day; with outdoor stops only, any daylight hours suit the walk.
• What costs admission: Schloss Rapperswil with the Polish Museum and Knie's Kinderzoo charge admission. The bridge, squares, hill, rose gardens, the parish church and the monastery church are free.

Common Questions About Walking Rapperswil