The largest miniature open-air museum in Switzerland

A journey through the whole of Switzerland in just one hour! Impossible! Not so in Swissminiatur, the park near the dam of Melide, where the whole of Switzerland is reproduced in miniature format. So if you like it clearly arranged, you should not miss the Swissminiatur-Park at Lago di Lugano, which was opened in 1959. It is the only one of its kind in Switzerland.

Here you will find 128 true-to-detail models on a scale of 1:25 - important castles, churches, villages, railway stations, patrician houses and other architectural monuments of Switzerland, embedded in a 14,000 square metre, beautiful park landscape with thousands of species of flowers and over 1500 trees.

Among the fascinating models true to the original are such well-known places and buildings as the Heidi village in Maienfeld, the castles of Rapperswil, Burgdorf and Chillon, the Federal Parliament building in Bern, the bobsleigh run in St. In 2003, the Milan Cathedral was also immortalised in the Swissminiatur-Park and is the only non-Swiss miniature building that refers to the former connection between Ticino and the Duchy of Milan. The cathedral is the only building in the exhibition that can also be visited from the inside.

Railway fans will be thrilled by the 18 model trains that run on a 3.5 km long rail network through the park landscape, over bridges and through stations where they sometimes stop. Various cogwheel, suspension and cable railways, as well as several model ships that sail around the small lakes, bring the world of Swissminiatur to life.

Remarkable is Swissminiatur's own workshop, where real masterpieces are created in small format using traditional methods as well as innovative processes. A great playground for children and a grottino round off the varied offer.

Every year, over 120,000 guests from all over the world visit Swissminiatur at the Ceresio. Surrounded by the impressive mountain scenery of Monte Generoso, San Salvatore and Monte San Giorgio, the museum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.