walking heads

According to legend, siblings Felix and Regula, along with their servant Exuperantius, were Roman Christians who fled to Zürich from the massacre of their legion in Valais in the third century AD. They were decapitated at the site of the Wasserkirche on the Limmat River for refusing to pray to the Roman gods. Following their execution, the martyrs picked up their heads and walked up the hill to the spot where they wished to be buried. Centuries later, when Charlemagne arrived at the gravesite of the three martyrs, his horse suddenly went down on its knees in deference to the saints buried there. Charlemagne then decided to found a church, which later became today's Grossmünster--one of the city's main landmarks.