Cabaret Voltaire

What it is

Cabaret Voltaire is the small cultural institution at Spiegelgasse 1 in Zurich's Old Town where Dada emerged in 1916. It is not a preserved nightclub recreated exactly as it was. The current institution operates as a museum, bar and cultural space, using the historical address to connect an exhibition programme and live events with the place where artists working in wartime exile made an international cabaret.

Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings opened the original venue on 5 February 1916 in the back room of Jan Ephraim's Hollanderstuebli. The operator describes their aim as an open stage for artistic entertainment and intellectual exchange. That history is the reason to visit: this is the birthplace of a movement, but also a working cultural venue rather than a monument viewed from behind a barrier.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What's inside

The Museum Cabaret Voltaire is organised around a hall for performances and activities, a bar, accessible spaces in front of and below the venue, and an entrance area. The operator presents these spaces as the special character of the place, which has shaped its programme both historically and today.

Cabaret Voltaire presents itself as an artists' local, a competence and mediation site for Dada, and a platform for contemporary cultural creation and relevant debates. Its programme puts historical Dada positions beside contemporary strategies rather than treating the past as a static display. The operator says its examination of Dada's historical heritage includes documentation, but cannot be exhausted by it.

The Vaulted Cellar is the venue's named exhibition space, and the operator lists its exhibitions separately from free entry to the house. The page describes Dada as an ongoing question about the present and calls the programme a permanent present-day check.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

How long to spend

Allow 45 minutes for a focused visit, an editorial judgement rather than a duration published by Cabaret Voltaire. That allows time to take in the building's historical role and avoid treating the address as a photograph stop.

Plan longer when a listed event is part of the visit. The institution explicitly separates events from ordinary admission and directs visitors to each event announcement, so an evening programme has its own timetable and price. A visitor interested chiefly in the Dada origin story can use the official historical account before arriving and keep the on-site visit short; someone attending a performance should not use the 45-minute estimate as a limit.

Checked 2026-08-26

Season and crowds

For the exhibition, use the operator's current schedule rather than a generic museum timetable. Outside the short summer schedule, exhibition hours are Tuesday to Thursday from 17:00 to 20:00, Friday and Saturday from 13:30 to 18:00, and Sunday from 13:30 to 18:00; Monday is not listed as an exhibition day. The bar and cafe keep later hours on several of those days, but bar access is not the same thing as exhibition access.

From 2026-07-07 through 2026-08-27, the operator publishes summer hours outside announced events: the house and exhibition are open Thursday through Sunday, 13:30 to 18:00, and the bar is open at those times. That seasonal change removes the regular Tuesday and Wednesday exhibition opening during the stated period. Check the programme before an evening visit because announced events can change the useful arrival time and have their own arrangements.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Tickets

Entering the house is free of charge according to Cabaret Voltaire. The operator lists the Vaulted Cellar exhibitions at CHF 8/5, but the page does not state on that page which visitors qualify for the lower CHF 5 amount. This guide records the published standard CHF 8 per-person cellar price in the admission data and does not guess the reduced-fare eligibility.

Events are not covered by one published general ticket price: the operator directs visitors to the respective announcement. Do not assume that an event is included with house access or a cellar-exhibition visit, and do not assume that the CHF 8/5 listing applies to a performance. Read the individual event page before committing an evening to it. There is no published all-access price, timed-entry rule, booking rule or general cancellation policy on the operator page used here, so none is recorded.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Getting there

Cabaret Voltaire gives its address as Spiegelgasse 1, 8001 Zurich, in the middle of the Old Town. Use that exact address for walking or public-transport navigation; it is more reliable than navigating to the name alone in a dense historic street network. The operator also publishes the office telephone number and email contact, but does not publish a preferred station, a route from Zurich main station, parking information or a step-free arrival route on the practical-information page used for this guide.

That absence matters for planning. A visitor who needs a particular access arrangement should ask the venue directly before travelling rather than treating the statement that the institution has accessible spaces as proof that every approach or room will suit a particular mobility aid. The address is the recorded access fact; detailed transit, parking and accessibility instructions are not recorded here.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What to watch out for

The main practical trap is confusing the venue's overlapping offers. The house is free, the Vaulted Cellar exhibition has a listed CHF 8/5 charge, and events require checking their own announcement. Regular bar-and-cafe hours also run later than exhibition hours on Tuesday through Saturday. Choose the part of Cabaret Voltaire you want to see, then match it to the relevant timetable and price rather than arriving on the strength of a single opening-time search result.

The operator publishes no general dress code, conduct rules, bag policy, security guidance, queue guidance, age policy or general photography rule on the pages checked for this entry. It would be unsafe to turn that silence into permission or a prohibition. For a performance, exhibition-specific restriction or an accessibility requirement, use the event announcement or contact the venue. No recurring scam, separate booking fee or mandatory tour is published by the operator, so none is stated here.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Photography

No general photography or filming policy is published on the Cabaret Voltaire pages checked on 2026-08-26. This guide therefore cannot say that photography is allowed in the exhibition, bar, performance hall or accessible spaces, and it cannot promise that filming or flash is permitted. The question is especially important here because the venue combines temporary exhibitions, a working bar and live events rather than operating as a single static display.

Ask a member of staff before taking photographs inside, and treat an event announcement as the governing source for that event. Photographs made from the public street do not answer the separate question of what may be photographed in the cultural spaces. No operator-published restriction, permission, permit process or fee is recorded in this fragment.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Where it is

• 1 hour

  2 min walk

  Zunfthaus zur Zimmerleuten

  • High · Heritage site
  • Restaurant or café
• 20 min

  3 min walk

  Karlsturm

  • High
  • Viewpoint
• 1 hr 15 min

  3 min walk

  Grossmünster

  • Must see · Heritage site
  • Place of worship

External links

• View on Wikidata