From Monte Verità to Monte Visione

The historic photo shows a group of people in colourful, flowing robes dancing beneath trees.

Project completed

Monte Verità in Canton Ticino – situated high above Lago Maggiore – is where creativity, art and culture meet. On this hill overlooking Ascona, Ida Hofmann and Henri Oedenkoven joined artists such as Gusto Gräser to establish a centre for new social movements in 1900. They called the place Monte Verità – Mount Truth. From 1940, the centre went into decline.

Lavishly renovated museum

The mountain venue and its history were rediscovered by Swiss exhibition maker Harald Szeemann in 1978. His exhibition «Monte Verità. Le mammelle della Verità», initially conceived as a touring exhibition, found a permanent home in Casa Anatta, one of the museum buildings at Monte Verità, from 1981. The museum was forced to close in 2009 due to its state of disrepair but reopened in 2017 following an extensive renovation project, now recast as «Monte Visione».

Soundtrack of a rich history

The Migros Pioneer Fund has supported the revival of Harald Szeeman’s 1982 exhibition in its original form and facilitated the creation of a modern media guide on the history of Monte Verità. Today, Monte Verità is an internationally renowned congress and cultural centre run by the foundation of the same name.