Museums in Switzerland
Swiss National Museum
The Swiss National Museum is one of the most important art museums of cultural history in Europe. The museum building of 1898 in the historicist style was built by Gustav Gull in the form of the French Renaissance city chateaus. The impressive architecture with dozens of towers, courts and his astonishing park on a peninsula between the rivers Sihl and Limmat has become one of the main sights of the Old City ...
Founded: 1898 |
Location:
Zürich, Switzerland
Lausanne Historical Museum
Housed in the bishop’s palace, the oldest parts of which date back to the 11th century, Lausanne Historical Museum has since 1918 been telling the story of the city of Lausanne and the economic, social and urban changes it has experienced. In its permanent exhibition, it tells the story of Lausanne, from its prehistoric origins through to the economic, social and urban revolutions of the 19th century. The collections bo ...
Founded: 1918 |
Location:
Lausanne, Switzerland
Basel Historical Museum
Opened in 1894, the Basel Historical Museum is one of the largest and most important museums of its kind in Switzerland. The museum is divided into four sections (buildings), three of which are within the city of Basel. These are Barfüsserkirche, Haus zum Kirschgarten and the Musikmuseum. The fourth section, the Coach and Carriage Museum lies slightly outside Basel, in the neighbouring town of Münchenstein. ...
Founded: 1894 |
Location:
Basel, Switzerland
Patek Philippe Museum
Patek Phillipe Museum is noble and prestigious private museum mapping the history of luxury watchmaking, since 16th century up to present. Huge collection of precious clocks and watches make the visit of museum artistic experience. Antoni Patek was Polish watchmaking pioneer, who settled in Switzerland in 1834, after career in millitary. Interested in art and trading, with good connections in Paris, he soon got into luxu ...
Founded: 19th century |
Location:
Geneva, Switzerland
Musée Rath
The Musée Rath is an art museum in Geneva, used exclusively for temporary exhibitions. It is the oldest purpose-built art museum in Switzerland. The museum was built between 1824 and 1826 by the architect Samuel Vaucher on behalf of the Société des arts. It was partly paid for with funds that General Simon Rath (1766–1819) had bequeathed to his sisters, Jeanne-Françoise and Henriette Rath, for such a purpose ...
Founded: 1824 |
Location:
Geneva, Switzerland
Museum of Art and History
The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire (Museum of Art and History) is the largest art museum in Geneva. It was built by the architect Marc Camoletti between 1903 and 1910, and financed by a bequest from the banker Charles Galland (1816–1901). The façade is decorated with sculptures by Paul Amlehn: an allegory of the arts, depicting painting, sculpture, drawing and architecture, is mounted on the triangular gable a ...
Founded: 1903 |
Location:
Geneva, Switzerland
Olympic Museum
The Olympic Museum (Musée olympique) in Lausanne houses permanent and temporary exhibits relating to sport and the Olympic movement. With more than 10,000 artifacts, the museum is the largest archive of Olympic Games in the world and one of Lausanne"s prime tourist site attracting more than 250,000 visitors each year. The Olympic Museum and the Olympic Park are located at Ouchy, south of Lausanne. The headqua ...
Founded: 1993 |
Location:
Lausanne, Switzerland
Bern Historical Museum
The Bern Historical Museum is the second largest historical museum in Switzerland. It was designed by the Neuchâtel architect André Lambert and built in 1894. Since it was initially conceived as the Swiss National Museum (which the city of Zurich was later chosen to host), the architect took as his model various historic castles from the 15th and 16th centuries. An extension to the original museum building was completed ...
Founded: 1894 |
Location:
Bern, Switzerland
Beyeler Foundation
The Beyeler Foundation owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy (1922-2008) and Ernst (1921-2010) Beyeler. In 1982 they commissioned Renzo Piano to design a museum to house their private collection. By building Renzo Piano's museum structure in 1997, the Beyeler Foundation made its collection permanently accessible to the public. The Beyeler Foundation presents 140 works of modern classics, including 23 Picasso ...
Founded: 1997 |
Location:
Riehen, Switzerland
Kunstmuseum Basel
The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the largest and most significant public art collection in Switzerland. The Kunstmuseum possesses the largest collection of works by the Holbein family. Further examples of Renaissance art include important pieces by such masters as Konrad Witz, Hans Baldung (called Grien), Martin Schongauer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Mathias Grünewald. The main features of the 17th and 18 ...
Founded: 1931-1936 |
Location:
Basel, Switzerland
Pavillon Le Corbusier
The Pavillon Le Corbusier is a Swiss art museum dedicated to the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. In 1960 Heidi Weber had the vision to establish a museum designed by Le Corbusier – this building should exhibit his works of art in an ideal environment created by the architect himself in the then Centre Le Corbusier or Heidi Weber Museum. It is the last building designed by Le Corbusier marking a radic ...
Founded: 1967 |
Location:
Zürich, Switzerland
Jura Museum of Art and History
Founded in 1909 by Arthur Daucourt, Musée jurassien d"art et d"histoire exhibits the history of Jura canton. It has 21 permanent exhibition rooms presenting the history of Jura, primarily in its cultural aspects, but also social, political and economic.
Founded: 1909 |
Location:
Delémont, Switzerland
Musée Ariana
The Musée Ariana is devoted to ceramic and glass artwork, and contains around 20,000 objects from the last 1,200 years, representing the historic, geographic, artistic and technological breadth of glass and ceramic manufacture during this time. Built between 1877 and 1884, the museum is shaped by Neo-Classical and Neo-Baroque elements and is situated near the Palace of Nations. It was built to house the privat ...
Founded: 1877 |
Location:
Geneva, Switzerland
Rietberg Museum
The Rietberg Museum in Zürich displays Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the only art museum of non-European cultures in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest to be run by the city itself. The Rietberg Museum is situated in the Rieterpark in central Zürich, and consists of several historic buildings: the Wesendonck Villa, the Remise (or 'Depot'), the Rieter Park-V ...
Founded: 1952 |
Location:
Zürich, Switzerland
Museum of Art and History
Musée d"Art et d"Histoire is a museum of art and history is housed in Fribourg"s only Renaissance building, The Ratzé Palace. The collections housed here include paintings and statues from the 12th to 19th centuries as well as historical remains that depict political, religious, and business aspects of life in Fribourg during that period. There is also a former slaughterhouse that now contains paintings ...
Founded: 1774 |
Location:
Fribourg, Switzerland
Voltaire Museum
The Institut et Musée Voltaire is a museum in Geneva dedicated to the life and works of Voltaire. The museum is housed in Les Délices, which was Voltaire"s home from 1755 until 1760. The property was bought by the city of Geneva in 1929, and the museum opened in 1952, founded by Theodore Besterman. It contains about 25,000 volumes on Voltaire and the 18th century as well as a collection of paintings and ...
Founded: 1755 |
Location:
Geneva, Switzerland
Vindonissa Museum
Vindonissa Museum in Brugg is the only Roman museum in Switzerland, which specialises in the history of the Roman legions. At that time, the first attempts to read and write started in Switzerland, and the latest permanent exhibition invites visitors to learn more about the first 100 years of reading and writing in the Upper Rhine Region. 2,000 years ago, public and private news was written on Roman slates. Now they guide ...
Founded: 1912 |
Location:
Brugg, Switzerland
Laténium
The Laténium is a museum of Swiss archaeology as well as the history of man in the Lake Neuchâtel region. The museum covers history from the Ice Age to Renaissance period (around AD 1600). The larger exhibitions are on the Gallo-Romans, Celts, and Bronze Age. The Laténium museum has numerous interactive displays, which can entertain adults and children of all ages. A large park (free) between the museum and the shores ...
Founded: 2001 |
Location:
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Museum of the Swiss Charters of Confederation
The Museum of the Swiss Charters of Confederation (Bundesbriefmuseum) was built in 1936 as a national shrine for the Federal Charter of 1291, which was believed to be the founding document of the Swiss Confederation. Today, the museum explains the national myth and the actual history of the Old Swiss Confederacy. It features a collection of original documents and flags. The overwhelming Spiritual national defence of ...
Founded: 1936 |
Location:
Schwyz, Switzerland
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Photo from Flickr, copyright Dennis Schäffer
Historic Site of the week
Externsteine Stones
The Externsteine (Extern stones) is a distinctive sandstone rock formation located in the Teutoburg Forest, near the town of Horn-Bad Meinberg. The formation is a tor consisting of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills. Archaeological excavations have yielded some Upper Paleolithic stone tools dating to about 10,700 BC from 9,600 BC.
In a popular tradition going back to an idea proposed to Hermann Hamelmann in 1564, the Externsteine are identified as a sacred site of the pagan Saxons, and the location of the Irminsul (sacral pillar-like object in German paganism) idol reportedly destroyed by Charlemagne; there is however no archaeological evidence that would confirm the site's use during the relevant period.
The stones were used as the site of a hermitage in the Middle Ages, and by at least the high medieval period were the site of a Christian chapel. The Externsteine relief is a medieval depiction of the Descent from the Cross. It remains controversial whether the site was already used for Christian worship in the 8th to early 10th centuries.
The Externsteine gained prominence when Völkisch and nationalistic scholars took an interest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This interest peaked under the Nazi regime, when the Externsteine became a focus of nazi propaganda. Today, they remain a popular tourist destination and also continue to attract Neo-Pagans and Neo-Nazis.