Museum sights in Switzerland
-
A
Kunstmuseum
The Kunstmuseum concentrates on two periods: from 1400 to 1600, and from 1800 to the present day. The medieval collection includes the world’s largest number of Holbein works. The smaller contemporary collection features Picassos and Rodins.
reviewed
-
B
Santuario della Madonna del Sasso
Overlooking the town, this sanctuary was built after the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared in a vision to a monk, Bartolomeo d'Ivrea, in 1480. There's a small museum, a church and several rather rough, near life-size statue groups (including one of the Last Supper) in niches on the stairway. The best-known painting in the church is La Fuga in Egitto (Flight to Egypt), painted in 1522 by Bramantino.
Contrasting in style are the naive votive paintings by the church entrance, where the Madonna and Child appear as ghostly apparitions in life-and-death situations.
A funicular runs every 15 minutes from the town centre past the sanctuary to Orisella, but the 20-minute walk up is …
reviewed
-
C
Musée Olympique
This museum is surprisingly interesting given that its subject does not elicit universal interest. Housed in a lavish building in the Parc Olympique, atop a tiered landscaped garden, it tells the Olympic story from its inception under Pierre de Coubertin to the most recent competition. Videos, archival film (usually including footage of the most recent games), touch-screen computers and memorabilia (anything from the Olympic flame torches used since 1936 to a pair of sprinter Carl Lewis’ track shoes) all help bring this sporting saga to life.
reviewed
-
D
Augusta Raurica
By the Rhine, these Roman ruins are Switzerland's largest. They're the last remnants of a colony founded in 44 BC that had grown to 20,000 citizens by the 2nd century. Today, restored features include an open-air theatre and several temples. There's also a Roman Museum which features an authentic Roman house among its exhibits.
reviewed
-
E
Natur-Museum
Anyone intrigued by stuffed critters and creepy crawlies shouldn’t miss the hands-on Natur-Museum. Highlights feature a woodland trail with real trees and a mushroom computer (don’t eat the red spotty ones). Keep your peepers open, too, for the fabled Luzerner Drachenstein, which, according to legend, fell from a dragon’s mouth as it was flying over Mt Pilatus. Modern science suggests that the 15th century stone was probably a meteorite.
reviewed
-
F
Castello Visconteo
Castello Visconteo, dating from the 15th century and named after the Visconti clan that long ruled Milan, today houses a museum with Roman and Bronze Age exhibits. Locarno is believed to have been a glass-manufacturing town in Roman times, which accounts for the strong showing of glass artefacts in the museum. This labyrinth of a castle, whose nucleus was raised around the 10th century, also hosts a small display (in Italian) on the Locarno Treaty.
reviewed
-
European Organisation for Nuclear Research
European Organisation for Nuclear Research, 8km west near Meyrin, is a laboratory for research into particle physics and was founded in 1954. It accelerates electrons and positrons down a 27km circular tube (the world's biggest machine) and the resulting collisions create new forms of matter - in 1996 it created antimatter for the first time. The lab can be visited by a free three-hour guided tour; book at least one month in advance.
reviewed
-
G
Museum Jean Tinguely
Built by leading Ticino architect Mario Botta, the Museum Jean Tinguely resonates with playful mischievousness. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to touch most of Tinguely’s ‘kinetic’ sculptures, which would rattle, shake or twirl if you did, but with springs, feathers and wheels radiating at every angle, they look appealingly like the work of a mad scientist. Catch bus 31 from Claraplatz.
reviewed
-
H
Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts
Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts has many works by Swiss and foreign artists, ranging from Ancient Egypt to Cubism. The core of the collection is made up of works by landscape painter, Louis Ducros (1748–1810), and three other locals. The permanent collection is closed during the frequent temporary exhibitions. It is mooted that the collection will be moved to a new lakeside location in the coming years.
reviewed
-
I
Picasso Museum
Don't arrive at the Picasso Museum expecting to find many of the man's works. Although it does include a few ceramics and sketches, this is principally a portrait of the artist as an impish craftsman, lover and father. Nearly 200 photographs by David Douglas Duncan create a captivating picture of the last 17 years of Picasso's life with his family in their Cannes home. It's a uniquely revealing series.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
J
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
This meseum is notable for three clockwork androids made between 1764 and 1774 by watchmaker Jaquet Droz. The Writer can be programmed to dip his pen in an inkpot and write up to 40 characters, while the Musician plays up to five tunes on a real organ. The Draughtsman is the simplest, with a repertoire of six drawings. The androids are activated on the first Sunday of the month at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm.
reviewed
-
K
Museo del Cioccolato Alprose
Chomp into some cocoa culture at the Museo del Cioccolato Alprose. This is a great place to take the children or anyone with a sweet tooth. As well as getting a chocolate-coated history lesson, you can watch the sugary substance being made and enjoy a free tasting. The shop, cunningly, stays open half an hour longer. Take the Ferrovia Ponte Tresa train (Sfr7).
reviewed
-
L
Verkehrshaus
It mightn’t sound like an exciting way to pass an afternoon, but the interactive Verkehrshaus is actually fascinating. Alongside space rockets, steam locomotives, flying bicycles and dugout canoes are hands-on activities such as flight simulators, broadcasting studios and a shadow orchestra translating movement to music.
reviewed
-
M
Historisches Museum
The HistorischesMuseum is cleverly organised into a series of attention-grabbing themes, from lust and lasciviousness to government and tourism. Pick up a barcode-reading audio-guide and let yourself be guided through your chosen story in German or English.
reviewed
-
N
Richard Wagner Museum
Housed in the composer’s former residence in Tribschen, on the lake’s southern shore, the RichardWagnerMuseum harbours historic musical instruments including rarities such as a regal (portable organ). Take bus 6, 7 or 8 from the train station to Wartegg.
reviewed
-
O
James Joyce Foundation
James Joyce spent much of WWI in Zürich and wrote Ulysses here. The James Joyce Foundation hosts regular public readings in English from Ulysses (5.30pm to 7pm Tuesday) and Finnegan’s Wake (7pm to 8.30pm Thursday).
reviewed
-
P
Musée de Carouge
Geneva’s bohemian streak strikes in Carouge, where the lack of any real sights – bar fashionable 18th-century houses overlooking courtyard gardens and Musée de Carouge, displaying 19th-century ceramics – is part of the charm.
reviewed
-
Q
Palais de Rumine museum collections
These cover natural history, zoology (with the longest - almost 6m - stuffed great white shark on show in the world), geology, coins, archaeology and history. The latter gives an overview of the history of the Vaud canton from the Old Stone Age to modern times.
reviewed
-
Augusta Raurica
These Roman ruins are Switzerland’s largest. They’re the last remnants of a colony founded in 43 BC that had grown to 20,000 citizens by the 2nd century. Today, restored features include an open-air theatre and several temples.
reviewed
-
R
Beyer Museum
Beyer Museum is a small museum chronicling the rise of timekeeping, from striated medieval candles to modern watches. It is inside a shop, whose display of precision time instruments is almost as extraordinary as the museum collection.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
S
Bank for International Settlements
Ticino architect Mario Botta is worth checking out; see his Tinguely Museum and the grey-striped offices of the Bank for International Settlements - incidentally, this was the bank most seriously implicated in the 1990s Holocaust scandal.
reviewed
-
T
Musée Barbier-Mueller
Venerating world culture, the Musée Barbier-Mueller has objects from so-called primitive societies, including pre-Columbian South American art treasures, Pacific Island statues, and shields and weapons from Africa.
reviewed
-
U
Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains
The Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains is a centre of modern design that frequently holds intriguing temporary exhibitions. Entry to the museum is free on the first Saturday of the month.
reviewed
-
V
Museo delle Culture Extraeuropee
About 1.7km from central Lugano, in Villa Heleneum, is the Museo delle Culture Extraeuropee. The brew of tribal relics from far-off countries includes a collection of masks and statues soaked in sexuality. Take bus 1.
reviewed
-
W
Migros Museum
Migros Museum, displaying contemporary art, is one of two main museums in the converted Löwenbräu brewery, which also houses several galleries, a bookshop, a fitness centre and offices.
reviewed
