| Swiss National Museum | |
| Native Name: | Landesmuseum |
| Native Name Lang: | de |
| Map Type: | Switzerland |
| Established: | 1898 |
| Location: | Museumstrasse 2, Zürich, Switzerland |
| Type: | National museum |
The Swiss National Museum (German: Landesmuseum), part of the Musée Suisse Group, itself affiliated with the Federal Office of Culture, is located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland's largest city, next to the Hauptbahnhof.
The museum building of 1898 in the historicist style was built by Gustav Gull in the form of the French Renaissance city chateaus. His impressive architecture with dozens of towers, courts and his astonishing park on a peninsula between the rivers Sihl and Limmat has become one of the main sights of the Old City district of Zürich. Its inauguration was filmed by François-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke,[1] the first non-french concessionary of the Lumière brothers.[2]
The exhibition tour takes the visitor from prehistory through ancient times and the Middle Ages to the 20th century (classic modern art and art of the 16th, 17th and 18th century is settled mainly in the Kunsthaus Museum in a different part of the city of Zürich). There is a very rich section with gothic art, chivalry and a comprehensive collection of liturgical wooden sculptures, panel paintings and carved altars. Zunfthaus zur Meisen near Fraumünster church houses the porcelain and faience collection of the Swiss National Museum. There are also: a Collections Gallery, a place where Swiss furnishings are exhibited, an Armoury Tower, a diorama of the Battle of Murten, and a Coin Cabinet showing 14th, 15th, 16th century Swiss coins and even some coins from the Middle Ages.
The boats of the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft start their round trips (Swiss National Museum–Wollishofen–Zürichhorn) on the Limmat through the city of Zürich at the Swiss National Museum.