Bahnhofstrasse is Zurich's most famous street and one of the world's most prestigious shopping boulevards, stretching roughly 1.4 kilometres from the main railway station down to the shores of Lake Zurich. Built in the 1860s over a drained moat that once encircled the medieval city, it replaced the old Fröschengraben canal with a tree-lined promenade that quickly became the commercial and social spine of modern Zurich. Beneath the paving stones, legend has it, lie the vaults of the Swiss banks — and while that's partly myth, it does speak to the street's deep association with Swiss financial power and discretion.
Neighbourhood