Self-Guided Walking Tour in Sion

Why Walk Sion? A Self-Guided Tour

Sion is small, and that is exactly why it works on foot. Two ruined castles sit on twin rocky hills directly above a compact medieval old town, so the whole place reads like a stage set you can cross in twenty minutes. You step out of the train station, walk five minutes, and you are already among 13th-century streets with the silhouette of Tourbillon castle hanging over your head. There is no sprawl to fight, no metro to learn, no neighborhood that is a long detour from the next. Everything links.

This particular loop is built so the flat old-town sights come first while your legs are fresh, then it sends you up the hill to Valère and Tourbillon for the part everyone remembers, and brings you back down past the museums and the last city-wall tower to the cathedral where you started. Doing it as a loop matters here: the climb up the castle ridge is the one genuinely demanding stretch, and you want it in the middle, not bolted on at the end when you are tired. Wandering randomly, most people miss the saddle between the two hills, which is where the famous two-castle photo actually happens.

A word on Sion's rhythm before you start. This is the sunny, wine-growing capital of Valais, one of the driest corners of Switzerland, so the light is hard and bright and the afternoons can bake. The old town goes quiet over the long midday break, the castle gates keep short hours, and the cathedral and churches stay free. Plan around those three facts and the day flows. Fight them and you will hit locked doors.

The Route: 12 Stops

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Route Map

Your Sion Walking Tour, Stop by Stop

1. 1

   Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Sion

   

   Start here, a five-minute walk from the station, because the cathedral is the oldest standing church in town and the obvious anchor of the old quarter. The Romanesque bell tower is the giveaway: heavy, square, much older than the Gothic body grafted onto it, and it has watched over this spot since the early medieval bishops ran Sion as a prince-bishopric. Step inside before the streets get busy. Entry is free, and the doors are open daily 08:00 to 19:00 from April to October, 08:00 to 17:30 from November to March. Give it ten or fifteen minutes. The interior is calm and dim, a good cool-down after the glare outside, and the carved choir stalls reward a slow look. Concrete tip: come early, before the Saturday market crowd spills over from Grand-Pont, and you will likely have the nave to yourself. Do not rush off the square afterward; turn and note the castle hills rising behind the rooftops, because that is where the walk is heading. From here it is a very short hop to the Maison Supersaxo, tucked just off the main streets.

   Hours

   Daily 9 AM - 5 PM

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Sion on Google Maps ↗

   2-minute walk

2. 2

   Maison Supersaxo

   

   Down a narrow lane off the busy streets sits a plain stone facade that gives nothing away. That is the point. Push inside and look up: the Maison Supersaxo, built in 1505 by the wealthy and ferociously ambitious local strongman Georg Supersaxo, hides one of the most spectacular carved wooden ceilings in Switzerland, a great star-shaped sunburst dripping with sculpted detail meant to outshine his rival, the prince-bishop. It is the kind of interior you would expect in a palace, dropped into an ordinary townhouse. Entry is free. The catch is access: it opens by reservation through Sion Tourism rather than fixed daily hours, so check at the tourist office on arrival or call ahead before you count on getting in. If the door is locked, do not stand around waiting; the rest of the loop is full and you can return. When it is open, ten minutes is plenty, and the ceiling alone justifies the detour. Tip: stand directly under the central rosette and look straight up, that is the view the carvers designed for. Back out on the lane, the Hôtel de Ville is barely a minute away.

   Hours

   By reservation (contact Sion Tourism)

   Price

   Free

   Website

   sion.ch ↗

   Location

   Maison Supersaxo on Google Maps ↗

   1-minute walk

3. 3

   Hôtel de Ville

   

   The town hall is one of those buildings you would walk straight past without a nudge, which is a shame. Built between 1657 and 1665, it carries one of the oldest astronomical clocks in Switzerland on its facade, and the entrance hall holds Roman milestones, hard proof that Sion sat on the road map of the empire long before any bishop arrived. The building is free and the public areas are generally accessible during civic hours, so put your head in to see the carved doors and the Roman stones rather than judging it from the street. Five minutes does it. The real reward is the front door itself, a richly carved wooden masterpiece from the 17th century that most passersby never stop to read. Tip: look for the inscriptions in several languages around the entrance, a small reminder that this was always a crossroads town. Step back out onto Rue du Grand-Pont, and if it is a Saturday morning you will already hear the next stop before you see it.

   Location

   Hôtel de Ville on Google Maps ↗

   1-minute walk

4. 4

   Marché du samedi

   If you have timed your walk for a Saturday morning, this is where Sion stops being a museum and turns into a living town. The market runs the length of Rue du Grand-Pont and the surrounding streets, and it is the social heart of the place: Valais wine by the bottle, wheels of raclette cheese, air-dried beef (viande séchée), apricots and bread, all sold by the people who made them. It is free to wander, and the energy is the attraction. Even outside the Saturday market there is a regular Friday market along the same streets from 08:00 to 14:00, so a weekday visitor is not shut out entirely. Budget as long as your appetite allows; this is the natural spot to grab food for the climb ahead. Concrete tip: buy a wedge of local cheese and a few slices of viande séchée here and carry them up to the castle viewpoint, it beats anything you will find on the hill. Then point yourself east, where the streets start to tilt upward toward the Jesuit church and the castle ridge.

   Hours

   Fri 08:00-14:00 (year-round, along Grand-Pont, rue de Lausanne, rue du Rhône & Espace des Remparts)

   Price

   Free

   Website

   mvvsion.ch ↗

   Location

   Marché du samedi on Google Maps ↗

   2-minute walk

5. 5

   Église des Jésuites

   

   As the old town starts to climb, the Jesuit church marks the transition from flat streets to hillside. The plain exterior is early Baroque from 1735, and again Sion plays its trick of hiding the good part inside. Step through and the interior opens up in soft pink and white, a calm, theatrical space that the Jesuits used to impress and instruct. It is free, open daily 09:00 to 17:00, and five to ten minutes is enough to take it in. Treat it as a breather and a temperature drop before the uphill stretch begins in earnest. Tip: this is one of the last reliably open interiors before you commit to the castle climb, so if you need a quiet sit-down moment, take it here rather than counting on the chapel further up. The Saturday-market hum fades behind you as you leave; from the church door the path begins to rise toward Valère hill, and the surface underfoot starts shifting from pavement to older stone.

   Hours

   Daily 9 AM - 5 PM

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Église des Jésuites on Google Maps ↗

   6-minute walk

6. 6

   Basilique de Valère + Musée d'histoire du Valais

   

   Now the climb pays off. The Basilique de Valère is a fortified 12th-century church crowning the southern hill, half church, half castle, with thick walls that doubled as defense. Inside it holds the headline fact of the whole walk: the world's oldest playable organ, built around 1430 and still sounded at concerts today. Let that sink in, a working instrument nearly six centuries old. The same fortified complex contains the Musée d'histoire du Valais, which walks you through the canton from prehistory to the present and is genuinely good. The museum costs 8 CHF for adults, 4 CHF for children and seniors, 16 CHF for a family. Hours run Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 to 17:00 from October to May, and daily 11:00 to 18:00 from June to September. Give this stop a full hour, more if a concert is on. Concrete tip: check the website for the organ concert schedule before you come, hearing that 1430 instrument played is the rare thing here, not just seeing it. Catch your breath on the ramparts, then follow the ridge path toward the tiny chapel on the way to the second castle.

   Location

   Basilique de Valère + Musée d'histoire du Valais on Google Maps ↗

   3-minute walk

7. 7

   Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints

   

   Between the two great hills sits something deliberately small: a plain medieval chapel on the saddle path, easy to walk past, worth a two-minute pause. The Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints (All Saints' Chapel) marks the old route up the ridge and gives you a quiet, human-scale moment between the heavyweight basilica behind you and the ruined fortress ahead. It is free and open daily 09:00 to 17:00. There is not a great deal inside, so do not build it up in your head; the value is its position and the breather it offers on the climb. Concrete tip: this saddle is the real photo spot, not the chapel itself. Turn around here and you can frame Valère's fortified church on one side and Tourbillon's broken walls on the other, the two-castle shot that most visitors hunt for and miss. Take it now, while you have both hills in view. Then push on up the last stretch to Tourbillon, which is the steepest part of the whole day.

   Hours

   Daily 9am–5pm

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints on Google Maps ↗

   5-minute walk

8. 8

   Château de Tourbillon

   

   The last pull up is the steepest of the walk, and the ruin at the top is the reward. Château de Tourbillon was the bishops' fortress, built in the late 13th century, burned in 1788 and never rebuilt, so what you get is a dramatic shell of walls and a chapel open to the sky, crowning the northern hill. You climb it for the view, and the view is enormous: the whole of Sion below, the Rhône valley running east and west, vineyards on the slopes, and the Alps closing the horizon. Entry is free. The gate is open daily 11:00 to 17:00, and those hours are firm, so do not arrive at 17:30 expecting to wander in. Allow thirty to forty-five minutes including the climb and the time you will inevitably spend just looking. Concrete tip: this is where that cheese and viande séchée from the market earns its keep, there is no shop up here, so eat on the ramparts with the valley spread out below. Coming back down, the path returns you toward the museums clustered at the foot of the hills, starting with Le Pénitencier.

   Hours

   Daily: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Château de Tourbillon on Google Maps ↗

   5-minute walk

9. 9

   Le Pénitencier

   

   Back at the base of the climb, the first of the cantonal museums is a former prison, and it has kept the bones of one. Le Pénitencier now runs temporary exhibitions for the Valais museums, often contemporary work, set inside cell-block architecture that gives the shows an odd, charged backdrop. Whether it is worth your time depends entirely on what is on, so this is a check-the-current-show stop rather than a guaranteed yes. Tickets are 8 CHF for adults, 4 CHF for children, students and seniors, and 16 CHF for a family. Hours are Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 to 17:00 from October to May, and Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 to 18:00 from June to September, closed Mondays. Concrete tip: the same ticket family covers the cantonal museums, so if you are going to pay for one of them, ask at the desk about a combined option rather than buying separately at each door. If the exhibition does not grab you, the building itself is a quick, free-to-look-at curiosity from outside. From here it is a short, level walk to the art museum in the old episcopal palace.

   Hours

   Oct–May Tue–Sun 11am–5pm; Jun–Sep Tue–Sun 11am–6pm

   Price

   Adults CHF 8 | Children/Students/Seniors CHF 4 | Families CHF 16

   Location

   Le Pénitencier on Google Maps ↗

   2-minute walk

10. 10

    Château de la Majorie (Musée d'art du Valais)

    

    At the foot of the castle hills, a former bishops' palace now holds the Musée d'art du Valais, the cantonal art collection. The building itself is part of the appeal, a 15th-century residence with later additions, and the collection inside traces Valais painting from the 16th century to the present, heavy on alpine landscapes and the way outside artists saw these mountains. Entry is 8 CHF for adults, 4 CHF for children, students and seniors, and 16 CHF for a family. Hours run 11:00 to 17:00 from October to May, and 11:00 to 18:00 from June to September. Plan on forty-five minutes to an hour if art is your thing; skip it without guilt if it is not, since you have already had the day's best views. Concrete tip: art lovers should treat this, Le Pénitencier and the Valère history museum as a single ticket family and check the combined option, it is the cheapest way to do all three. Leaving the palace, you drop back into the lower old town, heading west toward the last surviving piece of the medieval walls.

    Hours

    Oct–May 11am–5pm; Jun–Sep 11am–6pm

    Price

    Adults CHF 8 | Children/Students/Seniors CHF 4 | Families CHF 16

    Location

    Château de la Majorie (Musée d'art du Valais) on Google Maps ↗

    5-minute walk

11. 11

    Tour des Sorciers

    

    On the western edge of the old town stands a stout round tower, the Tour des Sorciers, the Witches' Tower, the last real fragment of Sion's medieval ramparts. The name comes from the dark history attached to it: this region ran some of the earliest and most brutal witch trials in Europe, and the tower's grim reputation stuck. It is free, generally open daily 09:00 to 17:00 or by guided tour, and you only need ten minutes here. The point is less what is inside and more the tower as the closing bracket on the day, the medieval defenses you have been circling from the castles down to street level. Concrete tip: the small garden and rampart fragment around the base make a quieter, leafier rest stop than the busy market streets, a good place to sit before the final stretch. From here it is a short, flat walk back through the old town to the cathedral, closing the loop where you began.

    Hours

    Daily 9am–5pm (or by guided tour)

    Price

    Free

    Location

    Tour des Sorciers on Google Maps ↗

    4-minute walk

12. 12

    Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Sion

    

    Start here, a five-minute walk from the station, because the cathedral is the oldest standing church in town and the obvious anchor of the old quarter. The Romanesque bell tower is the giveaway: heavy, square, much older than the Gothic body grafted onto it, and it has watched over this spot since the early medieval bishops ran Sion as a prince-bishopric. Step inside before the streets get busy. Entry is free, and the doors are open daily 08:00 to 19:00 from April to October, 08:00 to 17:30 from November to March. Give it ten or fifteen minutes. The interior is calm and dim, a good cool-down after the glare outside, and the carved choir stalls reward a slow look. Concrete tip: come early, before the Saturday market crowd spills over from Grand-Pont, and you will likely have the nave to yourself. Do not rush off the square afterward; turn and note the castle hills rising behind the rooftops, because that is where the walk is heading. From here it is a very short hop to the Maison Supersaxo, tucked just off the main streets.

    Hours

    Daily 9 AM - 5 PM

    Price

    Free

    Location

    Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Sion on Google Maps ↗

Self-Guided Tour vs. Group Tour in Sion

Done on your own, this loop costs almost nothing. The cathedral, both churches, the chapel, the town hall, the market, the Witches' Tower and Tourbillon castle are all free; the only paid stops are the three cantonal museums (Valère history museum, Le Pénitencier, Musée d'art du Valais) at 8 CHF each for adults, and you can pick and choose. A reasonable day might cost a single 8 CHF ticket plus whatever you spend at the market. That is the strongest argument for going self-guided here: the headline sights, the castle climb and the views, are open to anyone with a pair of legs.

Guided walking tours of Sion do exist, usually run through Sion Tourism, and they tend to land in the rough range of 15 to 25 CHF per person for a couple of hours, more for private groups, with the Maison Supersaxo and sometimes Valère included. The real value of a guide here is access and context: getting the Supersaxo ceiling unlocked, hearing the witch-trial history, understanding why a small alpine town has a working medieval organ. None of that is essential, but it is genuinely interesting, and the town is compact enough that a guided loop does not waste your time.

Honest verdict: Sion is so small and so well signposted that most people are perfectly served walking it themselves, paying for one museum, and reserving the Supersaxo house through the tourist office for free. Pay for a human guide only if the deep local history is the reason you came, or if you want the Supersaxo interior guaranteed open without chasing reservations yourself.

How Long Does This Sion Tour Take?

The full loop is about 3.2 km. Pure walking time is a little over an hour, but nobody should plan it as a one-hour day. The castle climb is the slow part, and the two hilltop sites plus the museums are where the time goes. Realistically, set aside three to four hours if you want to climb Tourbillon, see the Valère basilica and its history museum, and browse the market, and a full half-day if you add the art museum and Le Pénitencier.

The Basilique de Valère with its history museum deserves a full hour on its own, and Tourbillon another thirty to forty-five minutes including the climb. The natural break point is at the top: catch your breath on the Tourbillon ramparts or at the saddle by the Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints, both with the whole valley below you and a bench-free but flat spot to sit. Down in the old town, Rue du Grand-Pont is lined with cafés and terraces for a proper sit-down coffee before or after the climb. Time the hard middle stretch for late morning so you reach the castle gates within their 11:00 to 17:00 window, and you will not be rushing.

Tips for Walking in Sion

• Arrive by train. Sion station is a flat five-minute walk from the cathedral where the loop starts, and trains run roughly hourly from Geneva (about 1h40) and frequently from Lausanne and Brig along the main Valais line. There is no need for a car, and parking in the old town is limited.
• Wear proper shoes. The old-town streets are cobbled, and the climb to Valère and Tourbillon is on uneven stone paths and rocky steps that get slippery when wet. This is not a sandals route; the castle ridge is a real if short ascent.
• Restrooms: use the facilities at the cathedral end of the old town or in the cantonal museums (Valère history museum or Le Pénitencier) where your ticket gives you access. There are no toilets up at the open Tourbillon ruin, so go before you climb.
• Food and drink: buy lunch at the Saturday or Friday market on Rue du Grand-Pont, a wedge of raclette cheese and a few slices of viande séchée, and carry it up to eat with a view. A market picnic costs a few francs and beats anything on the hill, where there are no shops.
• Photo: the best two-castle shot is from the saddle by the Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints, between Valère and Tourbillon. Stand on the ridge path and frame one castle on each side. Late afternoon light from the west is warmest, but go earlier if the gates' 11:00 to 17:00 hours matter to you.
• Castle gates close at 17:00. Both Tourbillon and the Valère complex keep short hours, so do the hill in late morning or early afternoon, not at the end of the day, or you will find locked gates and have climbed for nothing.
• Reserve the Maison Supersaxo. Its carved ceiling is one of the best things in town, but it opens by reservation through Sion Tourism rather than fixed hours. Ask at the tourist office when you arrive so the door is open when you reach it.

Common Questions