Museum of Cultures (Lugano)

Geschichte

The Museum of Cultures is one of the museums that forms part of the Polo Culturale of the city of Lugano in Switzerland. It is situated in the Heleneum, a villa on the shore of Lake Lugano to the east of the city centre, and in the quarter of Castagnola. In 2016, the Museum will move to Villa Malpensata, a site closer to the center of Lugano, but still on the lake.HeleneumThe museum occupies Caréol Villa, which was built by Johann Frederic Haflinger in the second half of the 19th century. In 1929, it was sold to Hélène Bieber, originally from Frankfurt and a resident of Paris. Hélène had the earlier villa demolished, and replaced it with the current Heleneum. The new building, which was built between 1930 and 1934, was modelled on the Petit Trianon in Versaille. Hélène lived there until her death in 1967.Between 1969 and 1971, the Heleneum hosted piano master classes under the artistic direction of Carlo Florindo Semini, with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Franco Ferrara. After that, the villa was home to the Istituto Ticinesi di Alti Studi, directed by Elémire Zolla which gathered together archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, philosophers, linguists, egyptologists and orientalists. Between 1971 and 1976, the Heleneum hosted the Dalle Molle Institute for Semantic and Cognitive Studies.