A terrace bathed in sunlight in July can lie in the shade of the hill all day in December.
Find out when the sun reaches your terrace, your garden or your future home — and when buildings, trees or the terrain cast shade. For any address in Switzerland, on any day of the year.
e.g. Bahnhofstrasse 1 Zurich
No address found — enter street, number and town.
On a phone, Sonnenstand shows the sun times for the address; the 3D view with shadows needs a tablet or computer. An address you bought is open on both at no extra cost.
5 addresses for CHF 5.–One payment, no subscription
The same tree, the same height, both pictures at the same scale — and yet an enormous difference: in December its shadow runs 29 metres, in June barely over four. Both pictures show the sun at its highest point of the day, in Zurich.
Discover the sun’s path over your property
The 3D view shows how terrain, surrounding buildings and trees shape the path of sun and shade.
When does the sun arrive?
Move the sun through the day and see when your terrace is in sunlight and when shade reaches it — including the first and last sun of the day.
What about winter?
Pick any day of the year — and see the sunlit hours of all twelve months beside it. At a glance you grasp how sunlight changes from winter to summer.
And where you actually sit?
Put the measuring point where you actually sit — on the terrace, in the garden, on the second-floor balcony — and read the sunlight hours for that exact spot. On top of that you see how high your address lies compared with its surroundings, with labelled contour lines.
Examples to explore
Ten well-known addresses, each with the full 3D model — free, no sign-up. Next to them, the hours of direct sun measured in the model.
On a phone the examples show the sun times; in 3D on a tablet or computer.
- ZurichBahnhofstrasse 1, 8001 Zürich December2 h 25 min June8 h 05 min
- BernBundesgasse 3, 3011 Bern December5 h 40 min June5 h 55 min
- BaselMarktplatz 9, 4001 Basel December0 h 25 min June6 h 20 min
- LucerneSchwanenplatz 4, 6004 Luzern December2 h 40 min June7 h 10 min
- WinterthurMarktgasse 25, 8400 Winterthur December0 h 00 min June0 h 30 min
- St. GallenGallusstrasse 10, 9000 St. Gallen December1 h 00 min June4 h 40 min
- LuganoPiazza della Riforma 1, 6900 Lugano December3 h 10 min June2 h 55 min
- GenevaQuai du Mont-Blanc 1, 1201 Genève December7 h 00 min June12 h 15 min
- ChurPoststrasse 10, 7000 Chur December0 h 00 min June1 h 00 min
- ZugPostplatz 1, 6300 Zug December0 h 50 min June10 h 15 min
Official Swiss geodata
The 3D view rests on official Swiss geodata: terrain, surrounding buildings and recorded vegetation. How closely the picture matches reality depends on the resolution, currency and completeness of that data.
Technical details
The computed sun positions were checked against the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) ephemeris: largest deviation 0.004° in elevation and azimuth — the sun’s disc itself is about 0.5° wide.
Frequently asked
What counts as one address?
Every address picked from the official search counts as one unlock — after that it is open to you for any date and time. A second address on the same parcel needs another unlock; inside the open 3D view, however, you can move the measuring point freely, including onto neighbouring buildings.
How accurate is the sunlight analysis?
The sun’s position is computed astronomically for the chosen place and moment. The shadows come from official geodata on terrain, buildings and vegetation. What you see is the sunlight theoretically possible under a clear sky — weather, changes to buildings and vegetation, and inaccuracies in the data all cause deviations.
Which places are covered?
All of Switzerland. Terrain, buildings and trees are available nationwide.
How much sun does my flat or balcony get in winter?
Pick your address and set 21 December: the 3D view shows hour by hour when the sun reaches your home and when neighbouring buildings, terrain or trees shade it. In Zurich the sun climbs to only 19.2° at noon that day — shadows are then about six and a half times longer than in June.
How long is the shadow of a house or tree?
Shadow length = height divided by the tangent of the sun’s elevation. In Zurich a 10 m tree casts a 28.7 m shadow at noon on 21 December and only 4.4 m on 21 June. Sonnenstand calculates this for every building and tree nearby from official elevation data, terrain included.
Does Sonnenstand work on a phone?
Yes, in a simplified form: on a phone you see the first and last sun for the address, the hours of sun through the year and the horizon. The 3D view with shadows needs a tablet or computer; an address you bought is open there at no extra cost.
Is the view legally binding?
No. It is for private information when buying a house. It is neither an official extract nor an expert report; for building-law questions — such as a shading study in a permit application — you need a professional.