Museum tour through Neuchâtel

By linking science, society and art, unusual and sometimes surprising exhibitions are created that are always rich in knowledge and emotion. In the completely renovated, historic building, everything revolves around native animals, exotic creatures and geological finds.

The Museum of Art and History, and the Chateau de Nyon are presenting the national ceramics exhibition of Swissceramics (Swiss Ceramics Association) at their respective locations until 5 March 2023. On display will be the result of a competition judged by an international jury on the theme “Melting Pot – from the alchemical melting pot.” The term “melting pot” refers both to a space in which people of a wide variety of origins meet and a vessel in which alchemists or ceramists mix different materials.

Located in the middle of an idyllic park on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, the Laténium is the largest archaeological museum in Switzerland. Let yourself be guided through 50,000 years of history – from the Ice Age to the Middle Ages – in a fun and interactive way.

An offbeat look at our world

The sometimes curious exhibitions of the Ethnographic Museum Neuchâtel take you on a journey between the "Here" and the "Elsewhere". As a place of experience, seeing and experiencing, the museum enables its visitors to reflect on and reinterpret the familiar. This means seeing the world through different eyes.

After two years of renovation work, the Ethnographic Museum reinvents itself and presents its collection from a new perspective. The rooms show eight contrasting perspectives in relation to the collection, museum history and ethnology, and in doing so find their way back again and again to current issues. The makers remind us that the meaning of objects changes constantly over time and in the way they are viewed. 

In the footsteps of the celebrated writer and philosopher

The Espace Rousseau Neuchâtel takes visitors on a journey through the life and work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the 18th century. Bringing together new technologies and original archive material, the exhibition provides a better understanding of the writer’s life and his influence up to the present day. The Espace Rousseau includes original manuscripts, portraits and even a herbarium.
Visitors can also discover pieces of music composed by the writer.
Acknowledged as being of worldwide importance, the Jean-Jacques Rousseau archives have been listed since 2011 in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and are now being conserved for the benefit of mankind.

Free entry.

Both the main exhibition texts and the film are available in French, German and English. The accompanying brochure, also produced in those three languages, can be taken away by visitors as a souvenir of their time in Neuchâtel.

Did you know that Friedrich Dürrenmatt was not only a renowned writer but also a talented painter? Or that the German-speaking Swiss lived in Neuchâtel for almost 40 years and also died there? You can find out all this and much more at the Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel.

Most museums are closed on Mondays.
The Espace Rousseau is open on Mondays and closed on Sundays. The Centre Dürrenmatt is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The museums are also closed over the Christmas and New Year holidays. 

Find out in advance about the exact opening hours of the individual museums.   

You can travel comfortably to Neuchâtel by train. From the station, you can reach the desired museum on foot or by bus.