Schaffhausen walking tour & city guide

The old town

The city grew where boats on the Rhine had to unload their cargo before the falls, and the wealth of that trade shows in its houses. The old town has around 170 oriel windows, and many façades are painted. The most famous is the Haus zum Ritter on Vordergasse, covered in Renaissance frescoes by the 16th-century painter Tobias Stimmer.

Fronwagplatz, the main square, has old fountains and a clock tower, and the lanes around it, such as Vordergasse and Vorstadt, are pedestrian streets of shops and guild houses. The former monastery of All Saints now houses a museum of history, art and natural history, with quiet cloisters and an herb garden.

The Munot

The Munot is a massive circular fortress built in the 16th century on a hill above the old town. A spiral ramp inside the tower, wide enough for horses, leads to a round platform with views over the roofs and the Rhine, and vineyards cover the slope below. Every evening at nine the small Munot bell rings out over the city, a tradition kept up by a watchman who lives in the tower.

The Rhine Falls

About three kilometres downstream, at Neuhausen am Rheinfall, the Rhine drops over the Rhine Falls, the largest plain waterfall in Europe, around 150 metres wide and more than 20 metres high. It is at its most powerful in early summer, when snowmelt from the Alps swells the river.

Paths and viewing platforms run along both banks. On the south side, Schloss Laufen castle stands right above the falls, with walkways that lead down almost into the spray, and small boats cross the basin and take visitors to the rock in the middle of the falls.

A walking route

Start at the station and walk into the old town along Vorstadt to Fronwagplatz, then continue down Vordergasse past the Haus zum Ritter. Climb the steps through the vineyards to the Munot and walk up its spiral ramp, then come down to the Rhine and follow the riverside. For the falls, take a local train or bus to Neuhausen and walk the path along the north bank, cross the railway bridge to Schloss Laufen and look down on the water from the platforms.

Visiting tips

Schaffhausen is about 40 minutes by train from Zurich, and Schloss Laufen has its own small station on the line. The surrounding region is known for its Pinot noir, called Blauburgunder here, and the villages of the Klettgau are good for a vineyard walk. Stein am Rhein, another painted medieval town, is a short trip upstream.