Museum Rietberg Tours

Zurich’s Museum Rietberg is the only museum in Switzerland dedicated to non-European art and displays art and artefacts from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. Visit to see the collection’s roughly 23,000 objects, ranging from Mayan masks to contemporary art from the Congo, and 37,000 ethnographic photographs.

The museum began as the private collection of Baron Eduard von der Heydt, which was donated to the city of Zurich in 1945. The collection, which has evolved over the years, is housed in three villas and a modern extension. One of the villas, Villa Schönberg, is where composer Richard Wagner stayed when he was writing his opera “Tristan and Isolde.” The museum displays both permanent and temporary exhibitions. 

There are no parking facilities at the museum, so the best way to reach it is by public transportation. From Zurich’s main train station, take a train to Enge station. You can also take tram number 7, in the direction of Wollishofen, to Museum Rietberg, or bus the number 72, in the direction of Morgental, to Hügelstrasse stop. 

The Museum Rietberg is open Tuesday–Sunday, from late morning until early evening, with extended evening hours on Wednesdays. The museum is closed on many of Switzerland’s major holidays.

If you’d like to enjoy more of Zurich’s museums, visit the Museum of Art (Kunsthaus Zurich), which displays (mostly) European art made from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Spend a few hours in the galleries to see work by artists like Monet, Van Gogh, and Rodin, all presented in exhibitions meant to help visitors think about social issues of the past and present.