About Polarzauber

Between trains
and magic

Every Advent, Switzerland's largest station hall becomes what may be Europe's most unusual Christmas market. Between platforms and punch, between arriving and feeling at home.

Since 1994

A market that never stands still

It all began in 1994 with an idea that could not possibly work on paper: put a Christmas market in the middle of a railway station. Right where everyone is in a hurry.

That is exactly what gave it its character. Anyone enjoying mulled wine here is not standing apart from life, but right in the middle of it — between people coming home and others setting off.

More than 30 years later, it has become Switzerland's largest indoor Christmas market: over 100 market houses across around 2,000 square metres, beneath a roof that has watched generations of travellers pass through.

Festively lit Polarzauber market inside the grand hall of Zurich Main Station

In the middle of it all.
The only Christmas market in Switzerland where the last train matters more than closing time.

Our standard

Anything but an off-the-shelf market

Three things matter to us more than anything else.

Handcrafted goods at a Polarzauber market stall

Craft, not mass production

We curate every stall. Regional producers, genuine craftsmanship and objects with a story behind them. When you buy something here, you know where it came from.

Guests sharing a meal aboard the Fondue Train

A place, not a passage

Terrace, Fondue Train, lounge: we create places where people want to stay. For an after-work evening for two just as much as a team dinner for eighty.

Snow-covered Zurich main station on a winter evening from above

For everyone passing through

Families in the afternoon, commuters in the evening and guests from all over the world in between. Polarzauber belongs to no single audience. It belongs to Zurich.

In numbers

Switzerland's largest indoor Christmas market

1994

Part of Zurich's Advent season for over 30 years

over 100

Market houses

2,000 m²

Market space inside the station hall

1 roof

Above one of Europe's busiest railway stations

Our vision

A tradition that keeps moving

We believe in the magic of coming together.In the power of emotion.In connecting tradition with the future.

That is why we preserve what has defined this market since 1994 while continuing to think ahead: a curated selection instead of chance, considered design instead of decoration, and genuine experiences instead of a backdrop.

For Zurich. For the canton. For everyone who wants to experience this magic anew, year after year.

Organisation

The people behind Polarzauber

The organiser is Polarzauber AG – a THRYVE Group AG company, based at Wiesenstrasse 36, 8952 Schlieren. Together with the group’s agencies and specialist partners in hospitality, technology and security, it creates a market each year whose impact reaches far beyond the Advent season.

thryve.ch