On the Gotthard

The Swiss Alpine Museum has a new permanent venue at the top of the Gotthard Pass. “A Great Day Out” is the name of its first temporary exhibition – providing an additional attraction in the recently redesigned Museo Nazionale del San Gottardo. Scenes from home movies reveal the pure joy of day trips to mountain passes by car from the 1920s through to the 1980s, when even traffic jams were rare enough to be an adventure. 

Joy on four wheels
The car is as much a part of the twentieth century’s leisure-oriented society as the Tremola road is part of the Gotthard Pass. Thanks to the industrial production of compact cars, motoring not only became more democratic, it also developed into a mass phenomenon that ushered in individual freedoms, new experiences, and an unassuaged appetite for mobility. The Gotthard Pass is unparalleled as an example of – and backdrop for – this evolution. The exhibition “A Great Day Out” presents an emotional world of images – but now we know that the joy they hold was transitory. The quest for climate-friendly mobility has only just begun.

^{Foto from the temporary exhibition “A Great Day Out” (Foto: Sammlung Brügger)}

^{Film: © RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera}

After two years of construction, the Museo Nazionale del San Gottardo at the top of the Gotthard Pass is opening its doors once more in spring 2022 with a completely new programme: a permanent exhibition incorporating a multi-media “Gotthard Show”, an information desk, and new food and drink facilities. The Swiss Alpine Museum is making an appearance at the Gotthard Pass with a series of special temporary exhibitions.

For the opening hours and other information: museonazionalesangottardo.ch

^{Foto: parisiva.ch}

Museo Nazionale del San Gottardo
Fondazione Pro San Gottardo