Zürich or
Zurich (pronounced
/'z?r?k/ or
/'z?r?k/;
German pronunciation&_160;['tsy???ç]&_160; (
listen);
Zürich German Züri ['tsy?i];
French Zurich [zy?ik];
Italian Zurigo [dzu'?i?go]) is the largest city in
Switzerland and the capital of the
canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the
Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the
political capital of Switzerland being
Berne. Zürich can be counted as one of the world's pre-eminent
global cities. According to several surveys from 2006 to 2009, Zürich was named the city with the best
quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe.
[1][2][3] The
Zürich metropolitan area has a population of about 1.68 million people.
The earliest known form of the city's name is Turicum, attested on a tombstone of the late 2nd century AD in the form STA(tio) TURICEN(sis) ("Turicum tax post"). Neither the name's linguistic origin (most likely Rhaetic or Celtic) nor its meaning can be determined with certainty. A possibility is derivation from *Turicon, from the Gaulish personal name Turos.[4]
A first development towards its later, Germanic form is attested as early as the 6th century AD with the form Ziurichi. From the 10th century onward, the name has more or less clearly been established as Zürich (Zurih (857), Zurich (924)).[5] Note that in the modern Zürich dialect, the name has lost its final ch [x]. The adjective remains Zürcher ['tsyrxer] also in dialect.
In Roman times, Turicum was a tax-collecting point at the border of Gallia Belgica (from AD 90 Germania superior) and Raetia for goods trafficked on the Limmat river.
