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 Town district of Zurich.
[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.