Culture
Friedrich Nietzsche, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Ferdinand Hodler, Richard Wagner, only to name a few,
“had all come to the Engadine as travellers and remained as adorers. They sought relaxation and recovery, diversion,
artistic inspiration, sportive and alpine challenges, which they all found.”
Museums in and around St. Moritz
Museums, castles, churches and galleries:
Whether ancient history or modern art: the region’s cultural offerings are as varied as nature itself.
Berry Museum
The Berry Museum, housed in the century-old Villa Arona in the heart of St. Moritz, is dedicated to the doctor and painter Peter Robert Berry (1864-1942). Drawing on a comprehensive family collection, which assembles the majority of the artist’s oil paintings, pastels and drawings created over more than forty years, the Berry Museum for the first time offers deeper insight into the artistic vision of Peter Robert Berry.
Inspired and influenced by the internationally celebrated and locally important artists Giovanni Segantini and Giovanni Giacometti, Berry studied art in Paris and Munich. After returning to his birthplace, Berry captured the natural beauty of the mountain surroundings in vibrant colours. St. Moritz and the Upper Engadine are the decisive settings for his work. Life, art and landscape coalesce here to a singular snapshot of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Opening Hours: daily 10.00 hrs – 13.00 hrs 16.00 hrs – 19.00 hrs. Tuesday closed
Admission for adults CHF 15, children up to 12 free.
Museum Engiadinais
An Engadine collection as a synthesis of the arts
At the heart of the Museum Engiadinais with its 21 exhibition rooms are historical interiors from five centuries:
panelled parlours from the Engadine and neighbouring regions, a state room from the Valtellina, a stately kitchen and a bedchamber.
The renowned architect N. Hartmann created the building in 1906 especially for this collection. Thus the Museum Engiadinais can be regarded as a total work of art.
The e-guide tells the story(s) about it. This is included in the admission price.
Open from the end of May to the end of October & beginning of December to mid-April.
Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday, 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Admission for adults CHF 15.-, children up to 17 years free.
Segantini Museum
The museum was built in 1908 and is dedicated to the painter Giovanni Segantini who spent the last five years of his life in the Engadine. Born in 1858 in Arco (province of Trentino, Italy) located on the northern shore of the lake Garda, Giovanni Segantini attended the Milanese art academy Brera and afterwards lived in Brianza. In 1886 he moved to Switzerland.
At first he and his family settled in Savognin. After 1894 he lived in Maloja and Soglio. Giovanni Segantini died unexpectedly of peritonitis on the Schafberg above Pontresina in 1899. At the time he was working on the completion of the middle image (“Nature”) of his famous Alpine Triptych.
The pictures on display in the museum bear witness to the development which the artist’s style underwent in the course of his career. In his early works, for example, the influence of traditional Lombardian painting is apparent. Moving to the limpid air of the Alps inspired Giovanni Segantini to produce paintings of remarkable luminosity. The most important of his later works is the large-scale Alpine Triptych “Life – Nature – Death” which is displayed under the cupola of the museum.
Adults CHF 10.00, students CHF 7.00, children CHF 3.00, guided tours on request.
Mili Weber Haus
The Mili Weber Haus presents the artist’s comprehensive life’s work: picture stories, paintings, sketches, studies.
The most beautiful are probably the paintings with which Mili Weber has transformed walls and ceilings into a wonderful world of fables.
Visits on request.
Mrs. Carla Paganini: 081 833 42 95
Mrs. Tina Tesfay: 081 833 31 86
Mrs. Ottilia Fanti: 081 833 53 55
Mrs. Marlies Mehli: 081 833 07 77
Mrs Gretli Faoro: 081 833 51 69
Nietzsche Haus
“Now I’m light, now I’m flying…”
said the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who spent the summer months in this house in Sils from 1881 to 1888. Here you can see an exhibition of original writings, letters and first editions, Nietzsche’s library, Basel study room. You can also visit the Nietzsche Stone on the island of Chasté in Sils-Baselgia.
Every Wednesday from 11.00 to 12.30 an expert guided tour with a one-hour tour through the Nietzsche house takes place. Registration required under Tel: +41 81 826 52 24. A brochure about the Nietzsche Haus can be obtained from the Sils/Engadin tourist office.
Entrance fee/person: CHF 8.00
Church visit in the Engadine
– Santa Maria in Pontresina – 13th century frescoes.
– San Gian near Celerina – famous coffered ceiling from the 12th century.
– Sils-Fex – Fex-Crasta mountain church with frescoes from the 16th century.
– The rock chapel of the Catholic village church of St. Moritz.
Or get in your car and drive over the Ofenpass to Müstair.
The monastery church was founded by Charlemagne in the 8th century. Or the church of Bondo in Bergell or the Palazzo Salis in Soglio.
