Introduction
Welcome to Solothurn, which its inhabitants proudly call the most beautiful Baroque city in Switzerland. This claim is difficult to dispute. While Einsiedeln has its monastery and Lucerne its Jesuit Church, no Swiss city possesses such a concentrated, harmonious ensemble of Baroque architecture as Solothurn. The old town is a jewel box of curved facades, ornate doorways, painted ceilings, and exuberant stucco work, all preserved with the meticulous care that characterises Swiss civic pride.
But Solothurn has another distinction that is far stranger: an obsession with the number eleven that permeates the city's history, architecture, and culture. There are eleven churches and chapels within the old town. The cathedral has eleven altars and eleven bells, and its monumental staircase has three flights of eleven steps each. The city's coat of arms features eleven colours. The carnival, the Fasnacht, begins at eleven minutes past eleven on the eleventh of November. This numerical fixation is both playful and deeply embedded, and no one can fully explain where it comes from.
Solothurn sits on the Aare River at the southern foot of the Jura Mountains. It is one of the oldest settlements in Switzerland, with Roman origins, and its strategic position on the river crossing made it an important military and diplomatic centre for centuries. From 1530 to 1792, it served as the seat of the French ambassador to Switzerland, and this French connection brought the wealth and aesthetic refinement that transformed the town from a medieval fortress into a Baroque showpiece.
Stop 1: Solothurn Hauptbahnhof to Kreuzackerbrucke — 47.2088, 7.5378
Walk south from the station toward the Aare River. Within a few minutes, you will see the river ahead of you, and the silhouette of the old town rising on its southern bank. The Aare, Switzerland's longest river that flows entirely within the country, is here a broad, powerful stream of emerald green water. It rises in the Bernese Oberland glaciers and flows through Bern before reaching Solothurn on its way to join the Rhine.
The approach to the old town from the north gives you a fine view of the defensive walls and towers that still partially surround the historic centre. Solothurn's fortifications were built and rebuilt over many centuries, from the Roman period through the medieval and early modern eras. The sections visible today date primarily from the seventeenth century and represent the state-of-the-art military architecture of the period, with bastions, ravelins, and angled walls designed to deflect cannon fire.
Cross the Kreuzackerbrucke and enter the old town through the Baseltor, the Basel Gate. This imposing stone gateway is one of the best-preserved city gates in Switzerland, with its original portcullis grooves still visible in the stonework.
Stop 2: Hauptgasse — 47.2080, 7.5405
The Hauptgasse is the main street of Solothurn's old town, and it is here that the Baroque character of the city announces itself most emphatically. The street is lined on both sides with buildings whose facades are decorated with the full vocabulary of Baroque ornamentation: curved pediments, scrolled brackets, stucco garlands, and painted window surrounds.
The Baroque transformation of Solothurn began in the late sixteenth century and reached its peak in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The driving force was the French embassy. As the seat of the French ambassador to the Swiss Confederation, Solothurn became the most important diplomatic posting in Switzerland. The ambassador and his retinue brought French taste, French money, and French craftsmen, and the local elite rushed to emulate the style of the most powerful court in Europe.
The result was a building boom that replaced most of the medieval facades with Baroque designs. The underlying medieval structures often survived, with their thick walls and deep cellars, but the street-facing facades were completely remodelled in the latest French and Italian fashion. The effect is remarkably unified, creating a streetscape that feels as if it were designed as a single composition rather than built piecemeal over centuries.
Look for the elaborate wrought-iron signs that hang from many buildings. These are not merely decorative but mark the locations of historic inns, shops, and guild houses. The Krone, the Adler, and the Rossli are names that have marked Swiss hostelries for centuries, and several of Solothurn's are still in operation.
Stop 3: Zeitglockenturm — 47.2077, 7.5413
The Zeitglockenturm, or Clock Tower, stands at the eastern end of the Hauptgasse and is one of Solothurn's most recognisable landmarks. This medieval tower was originally part of the city's fortifications and was converted into a clock tower in the fifteenth century.
The clock itself is a fascinating piece of pre-industrial technology. The face displays not only the time but also the day of the week, the month, the zodiac sign, and the phases of the moon. This astronomical information was not merely decorative in the medieval and early modern period: it was essential for agriculture, medicine, and religious observance, all of which were timed by celestial events.
The clock mechanism dates from the fifteenth century and is one of the oldest still functioning in Switzerland. The tower also houses a mechanical figure show, or Figurenuhr, that performs at certain hours. These automated figure shows were popular features of medieval and Renaissance clock towers, and they drew crowds of onlookers who gathered to watch the mechanical pageant.
Look at the tower's base. It sits at a slight angle to the street, a reflection of the fact that the medieval street plan was not perfectly regular. This organic irregularity, where buildings follow the logic of the terrain rather than a grid, gives Solothurn's old town its intimate, human-scaled character.
Stop 4: Marktplatz — 47.2075, 7.5420
The Marktplatz, or Market Square, is the commercial heart of the old town and one of the finest urban spaces in the Swiss Mittelland. The square is enclosed on three sides by Baroque facades, and a fountain with a painted figure stands at its centre.
Markets have been held on this square since the medieval period, and on Wednesday and Saturday mornings the tradition continues. Stalls selling local produce, cheese, bread, flowers, and seasonal vegetables fill the square, and the atmosphere is a lively mix of commerce and socialising that has not fundamentally changed in centuries.
The buildings around the square include several former guild houses, identifiable by their larger-than-average size and their more elaborate decoration. The guilds of Solothurn, like those of other Swiss cities, were powerful organisations that controlled economic life and played a major role in civic governance. Each guild had its own hall, its own coat of arms, and its own patron saint, and the guild system remained in force in Solothurn until the Helvetic Revolution of 1798.
One of the most striking buildings on the square is the former Ambassadorial Residence, where the French ambassador and his household lived during their posting to Solothurn. The building's facade is the most elaborately decorated in the city, with carved stone ornaments, a grand entrance portal, and balconies that allowed the ambassador to survey the square below.
Stop 5: St. Ursus Cathedral — 47.2072, 7.5430
Leaving the Marktplatz and walking south, you arrive at the Cathedral of St. Ursus, the crowning glory of Baroque Solothurn and one of the most magnificent Neoclassical churches in Switzerland. Built between 1762 and 1773, the cathedral replaced an earlier Romanesque church and was designed by the Ticino-born architect Gaetano Matteo Pisoni.
The approach to the cathedral is dramatic. A monumental stone staircase ascends from the street to the church entrance in three flights of eleven steps each, for a total of thirty-three steps. The number eleven appears here with almost comic insistence. There are eleven altars inside. Eleven bells hang in the tower. The building committee consisted of eleven members. This devotion to eleven is the most visible expression of Solothurn's numerical obsession, and opinions differ on its origins. Some historians trace it to the city's status as the eleventh canton to join the Swiss Confederation. Others see a connection to the eleven thousand virgins of the St. Ursula legend. Still others think it is simply a tradition that has become self-reinforcing, each generation adding more elevens because the previous one did.
The cathedral interior is a soaring space of white stucco, marble, and gilding. The Italian-influenced design creates an atmosphere of luminous grandeur, with light flooding in through large windows and reflecting off the pale surfaces. The high altar is a masterpiece of Neoclassical design, with columns, statues, and gilded rays radiating from a central sunburst. The organ, built by Joseph Anton Moser in 1772, is one of the finest Baroque instruments in Switzerland.
Stop 6: Jesuitenkirche — 47.2068, 7.5422
A short walk south from the cathedral brings you to the Jesuitenkirche, the Jesuit Church, a seventeenth-century Baroque building that predates the cathedral by about a century. The Jesuits arrived in Solothurn in 1646, at the height of the Counter-Reformation, and built this church as a statement of Catholic confidence and splendour.
The interior is a riot of Baroque decoration: ceiling frescoes depicting the life of St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary to Asia; elaborate stucco work framing the windows and altars; and gilded woodwork that catches the light from the high windows. The contrast with the restrained elegance of the cathedral is striking and illustrates the range of Baroque expression, from the exuberant to the classical.
The Jesuits were suppressed in Switzerland in 1773, and their church and college passed to other hands. But their architectural legacy in Solothurn endures, and the church remains one of the finest Baroque interiors in German-speaking Switzerland.
Stop 7: Aare River Walk — 47.2082, 7.5438
Walk east through the old town to the Aare riverfront, where a promenade follows the bank downstream. The river here flows swift and deep, its emerald waters contrasting with the warm stone of the old town buildings that line the opposite bank.
The Aare has always been central to Solothurn's identity and economy. Before the railways, the river was the main transport route for heavy goods, and the timber trade in particular depended on the Aare for floating logs from the forests of the Bernese Oberland to the markets of the Mittelland. Solothurn's position at a major crossing point gave it control over river traffic, and the tolls collected here were a significant source of revenue.
Today, the river is used primarily for recreation. In summer, the Aare swimming tradition is in full swing: Solothurn, like Bern and Thun, has a tradition of river swimming, and on hot days locals float downstream in the clear water, a refreshing and quintessentially Swiss experience. The river promenade is lined with mature trees and offers views back toward the old town and the cathedral tower.
Stop 8: Krummturm — 47.2086, 7.5445
Our walk ends at the Krummturm, the Crooked Tower, one of the most characterful landmarks on the Aare waterfront. This medieval tower, which leans visibly to one side, was part of the original city fortifications and has been standing at its current angle for centuries.
The lean is not the result of poor construction but of the shifting alluvial soil beneath the tower's foundations. The Aare floodplain, like all river deposits, is unstable, and over time the uneven settling of the ground has tilted the tower. Rather than demolish it, the people of Solothurn have embraced the Krummturm as a beloved landmark and a symbol of the city's willingness to live with imperfection in a country that prides itself on precision.
From the Krummturm, you can see downstream along the Aare toward the Jura foothills and upstream toward the old town. The view encompasses the full sweep of Solothurn's waterfront, from the fortification walls to the cathedral tower, and it is one of the most photographed scenes in the canton.
Conclusion
Solothurn is a city of surprises. Its Baroque splendour rivals anything in Austria or Bavaria, yet it remains relatively unknown outside Switzerland. Its obsession with the number eleven is eccentric, charming, and ultimately inexplicable. And its position on the Aare, at the foot of the Jura, gives it a natural beauty that complements its architectural riches.
Practical Information
- Best Time: Year-round. The Baroque interiors are magnificent in any weather. The Fasnacht carnival in February is one of the most exuberant in Switzerland.
- Wear: Comfortable shoes for the cobblestone streets. The route is flat throughout.
- Bring: A camera for the Baroque facades and the Aare River views. Binoculars for the cathedral ceiling details.
- Nearby Food: The Marktplatz restaurants serve excellent local cuisine. Try the Solothurner Torte, a local meringue cake. The old town cafes are perfect for people-watching.
- Getting There: Direct trains from Bern (30 min), Basel (50 min), and Zurich (70 min). Solothurn is also accessible by boat from Biel on the Aare.