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Museums and Music

The great museums and the summer music festivals of the Alps.

Last checked October 2026.

The Mirabell Palace and Gardens, SalzburgPhotograph: Pexels

Museums

  • Fondation Pierre GianaddaMartigny (Switzerland)

    Founded in 1978 by Léonard Gianadda in memory of his brother Pierre, it presents international exhibitions and concerts alongside a sculpture park, a Gallo-Roman museum, an automobile museum and the Louis and Evelyn Franck Collection; it has welcomed more than 11 million visitors. Visit website ↗

  • Museum Sammlung RosengartLucerne (Switzerland)

    Opened in 2002 in the former Swiss National Bank building, it shows the collection of the dealer Siegfried Rosengart and his daughter Angela, with major groups of works by Picasso and Paul Klee and pieces by Monet, Matisse, Chagall and Kandinsky. Visit website ↗

  • Kirchner Museum DavosDavos (Switzerland)

    The museum devoted to the Expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, with a programme of exhibitions on Kirchner and his circle; open Tuesday to Sunday. Visit website ↗

  • Segantini MuseumSt. Moritz (Switzerland)

    Opened in 1908 to designs by Nicolaus Hartmann as a walk-in memorial to Giovanni Segantini; its centrepiece is his great Alpine Triptych, "Becoming, Being, Passing". Visit website ↗

  • Muzeum SuschSusch, Lower Engadine (Switzerland)

    Opened in 2019 by the collector Grażyna Kulczyk in the buildings of a 12th-century monastery and a 19th-century brewery, with galleries blasted into the mountain; it focuses on women modern and contemporary artists.

  • Messner Mountain Museum CoronesKronplatz, South Tyrol (Italy)

    Designed by Zaha Hadid and set into the summit of Kronplatz at 2,275 metres, reachable only by cable car or on foot; the most architecturally celebrated of Reinhold Messner's six mountain museums, whose headquarters is MMM Firmian at Sigmundskron Castle near Bolzano. Open from late spring to autumn and again through the winter ski season. Visit website ↗

  • South Tyrol Museum of ArchaeologyBolzano (Italy)

    Established in 1998 to house Ötzi, the Iceman, a natural mummy from about 3300 BC kept in glacier conditions, together with his clothing and equipment, including the world's oldest complete Copper Age axe. Visit website ↗

  • MartRovereto, Trentino (Italy)

    Opened in 2002 in a building by Mario Botta arranged around a domed circular piazza, it is one of Italy's leading museums of modern and contemporary art, with works by de Chirico, Carrà, Morandi, Sironi and Depero. Visit website ↗

  • Franz Marc MuseumKochel am See (Germany, Bavaria)

    A late 19th-century villa with a 2008 extension by Diethelm & Spillmann above Lake Kochel, where Franz Marc did much of his major work; it shows Marc and the Blue Rider alongside Klee, Kandinsky, the Brücke painters and post-war German art.

  • Kunsthaus BregenzBregenz, Lake Constance (Austria)

    Peter Zumthor's glass-clad "daylight museum", opened in 1997, presents international contemporary art, much of it made for the building. Visit website ↗

  • Schloss AmbrasInnsbruck (Austria)

    Archduke Ferdinand II's Renaissance castle above Innsbruck, run by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna since 1950; it holds the only Renaissance Kunstkammer still in its original place, the Habsburg Portrait Gallery and the Spanish Hall. Visit website ↗

Music venues

  • La Grange au LacÉvian-les-Bains (France)

    A 1,000-seat wooden concert hall built in 1993 for Mstislav Rostropovich, the main stage of the Rencontres Musicales d'Évian, held in late June and early July; a 500-seat chamber hall, La Source Vive, opened alongside it in 2026.

  • Victoria HallGeneva (Switzerland)

    The 1,700-seat concert hall completed in the 1890s in the centre of Geneva, home of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Visit website ↗

  • Grand Théâtre de GenèveGeneva (Switzerland)

    Opened in 1879, the 1,488-seat house is the largest opera and ballet theatre in French-speaking Switzerland. Visit website ↗

  • Salle des CombinsVerbier Festival, Verbier (Switzerland)

    The main hall of the Verbier Festival, founded in 1994 by Martin T:son Engström, which brings leading soloists and orchestras to the resort from mid-July into early August. Visit website ↗

  • Festival TentGstaad Menuhin Festival, Gstaad (Switzerland)

    Founded in 1957 by Yehudi Menuhin, the festival runs for several weeks in summer, with its large concerts in the Festival Tent in Gstaad.

  • KKL LuzernLucerne (Switzerland)

    Jean Nouvel's concert hall on Lake Lucerne, opened in 1998 and designed with particular attention to acoustics, is the main stage of Lucerne Festival (founded 1938), held from mid-August to mid-September. Visit website ↗

  • Schloss ElmauKrün, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany, Bavaria)

    A five-star castle hotel below the Wetterstein mountains, with a 300-seat concert hall that has hosted musicians since 1957, among them the Amadeus Quartet, Benjamin Britten and Yehudi Menuhin. Visit website ↗

  • Grosses FestspielhausSalzburg (Austria)

    The Great Festival Hall, opened in 1960, is the largest stage of the Salzburg Festival (founded 1920), held from late July to the end of August. Visit website ↗

  • FelsenreitschuleSalzburg (Austria)

    A former riding school cut into the rock of the Mönchsberg, converted into a Salzburg Festival stage in 1926. Visit website ↗

  • Haus für MozartSalzburg (Austria)

    Rebuilt from the original 1925 festival hall and reopened in 2006, the Salzburg Festival's house for Mozart opera. Visit website ↗

  • Great Hall of the MozarteumSalzburg (Austria)

    The concert hall of the International Mozarteum Foundation, opened in 1914, seating up to 800 and known for its acoustics; home of the foundation's Mozart Week each winter and a venue of the Salzburg Festival and Easter Festival. Visit website ↗

  • SeebühneBregenz Festival, Bregenz (Austria)

    The floating stage on Lake Constance, with a 7,000-seat open-air amphitheatre, is the setting for the Bregenz Festival's large opera production every July and August; the festival was founded in 1946.

  • Festspielhaus ErlErl, Tyrol (Austria)

    Delugan Meissl's festival hall, opened in 2012 beside the 1959 Passion Play theatre, hosts the Tiroler Festspiele Erl's winter season of opera and concerts in December and early January, as well as summer performances. Visit website ↗

  • Angelika-Kauffmann-SaalSchubertiade, Schwarzenberg, Vorarlberg (Austria)

    The hall in Schwarzenberg that is the main stage of the Schubertiade, founded in 1976 on the initiative of the baritone Hermann Prey and one of the largest Schubert festivals, with around 80 chamber concerts, song and piano recitals and readings each year in Schwarzenberg and Hohenems. Visit website ↗

That makes 25 entries in all.

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