11 Best Sights in Eastern Switzerland, Switzerland

This beautiful cathedral, along with its cloister and grounds, dominates the lower city. Founded in 1049, the original cathedral was dedicated in 1064, and the larger one that stands today was built in 1103. Its interior has been restored to Romanesque austerity with a modern aesthetic (hanging architect's lamps, Scandinavian-style pews). The cloister, begun in 1050, combines Romanesque and later-Gothic elements. Memorial plates on the inside wall honor noblemen and civic leaders buried in the cloister's central garden. You'll also pass through the aromatic herb garden, so beautiful that you may feel you've stepped into a tapestry.

The centerpiece of the main courtyard, the cathedral's enormous Schiller Bell, was cast in 1486; it hung in the tower of the cathedral until 1895. Its inscription, vivos—voco/mortuos—plango/fulgura—frango ("I call the living, mourn the dead, stop the lightning"), allegedly inspired the German poet Friedrich von Schiller to write his "Lied von der Glocke" ("Song of the Bell").

The Rheinfall is 492 feet wide, drops some 75 feet in a series of three dramatic leaps, and is split at the center by a bushy crag straight out of a 19th-century landscape painting. The effect—mist, roaring water, jutting rocks—is positively Wagnerian. Goethe saw in the falls the "ocean's source," although today's jaded globe-trotters have been known to find them "cute." A visitor center at the nearby Schloss Laufen includes a souvenir shop, restaurant, playground, and new bridge walkway that lets you see, hear, and get sprayed by the falls.

This Rococo duplex dates from 1738; since they are now private residences, you can see them only from the outside. Across the street are the Tellenbrunnen, a fountain-statue of Wilhelm Tell copied from the 1522 original, and the St. Johannkirche (St. John's Church), whose Gothic exterior dates from 1248.