The story
Knabenschiessen Zurich in Zurich
Zurich's Knabenschiessen began in the 1650s as youth shooting practice tied to civic militia tradition, and still crowns a teenage Schuetzenkoenig or Schuetzenkoenigin each September on the Albisguetli range, with girls eligible to compete since 1991. Most visitors experience the event through the large funfair built around it rather than the controlled-access shooting competition itself. It functions today as one of Zurich's biggest autumn city festivals.
Zurich's Knabenschiessen began in the mid-seventeenth century as organized shooting practice for the city's teenage boys, part of the broader Swiss tradition of civic militia training that also produced the country's dense network of shooting clubs.