The Best Museums in and around Locarno, Switzerland

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Museum

Located on the lush and beautiful Monte Verità above Ascona, the Museo Casa Anatta is home to a permanent exhibition about Monte Verità itself. Here, in 1902, a group of various artists founded a naturist colony, where they lived for 18 years following a strict vegetarian diet as well as a very alternative lifestyle. Today, this fascinating story can be discovered at Museo Casa Anatta’s exhibition, which includes a wealth of materials linked to the history of Monte Verità.

Church, Museum

Perched on a hill above Locarno, the Madonna del Sasso is located in a wonderful spot with an incredible view over Lake Maggiore. Reachable by taking a path up from Locarno or with the Orselina cable car, the church is embellished with incredible frescoes and it’s home to the Museo Casa del Padre, a must for those who want to admire some of the finest sacred art in the area. The Friars’ Library, with its 14,000 volumes, is definitely worth a visit as well.

Museum

Located in the medieval Visconti Castle, Locarno’s Archaeological Museum displays local finds dating back to the Bronze Age and up to the Middle Ages. The collection of Roman glassware and ceramics discovered in the Canton Ticino is particularly interesting and so is the documentation of prehistoric Locarno. The museum is also home to a new permanent exhibition, ‘Locarno, city of the Reformation. From the Protestants’ exile to the setting up of tolerance’, which retraces the town’s more recent history.

Amusement Park, Museum, Zoo

Very popular with kids, the Falconeria is one of Locarno’s most popular sights and it gives visitors the chance to learn more about birds of prey such as eagles, hawks, owls, vultures, marabous, ibis and storks. The skilled trainers will show you how these incredible and intelligent birds have been taught to work alongside humans since the Middle Ages. The one-hour show is not only fun, but also very educational and a hit among those who visit the Falconeria Locarno.

Art Gallery
The Fondazione Ghisla Art Collection was founded in 2014 with the objective of sharing an artistic heritage of international value with the public. The foundation is housed in a futuristic-style building in the town centre only a few metres away from the ferry dock and features pop art, art informal, abstract works and New Dada masterpieces. Alongside pieces by well-known painters, the museum also features artworks by young emerging talents that are not yet known by art enthusiasts.

Museum

While visiting Brissago, right between Ascona and the Italian border, don’t miss the chance to see the Museo Leoncavallo, open to the public since 2002. The building itself is beautiful: historic Palazzo Branca-Baccalà is a stunning Baroque mansion that deserves a visit and that offers incredible views over the village and the shores of Lake Maggiore. Inside the palace, you will find documents and private objects that belonged to Ruggero Leoncavallo, a famed Italian composer who lived for a long period in Brissago at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s.

Museum
Quite the unique museum, the Comedy Museum, opened in 2000 by Swiss clown Dimitri, is home to over 600 pieces from all over the world, collected by Dimitri himself during his long and successful career. The first room is dedicated to elephants, the clown’s lucky charm since the 1970s, and you can see examples of every size and form. The second room contains musical instruments, while the third room is dedicated to comic masks with the possibility of watching performances from the greatest clowns in the world on a large screen. The last room is dedicated to clowns, puppet theatres and comic theatre companies of all shapes and sizes.