Zurich

Sparse settlement here goes back more than 6,400 years, and the place has been permanently occupied for over two thousand, founded properly by the Romans, who called it Turicum. In the Middle Ages it won the privileged status of imperial immediacy, and in 1519 became a primary centre of the Protestant Reformation in Europe under Huldrych Zwingli. It is the largest city in Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of its lake, and the hub of the country’s railways, roads and air traffic, both the airport and the main station are the busiest in the country.