Rosengart Collection

The Rosengart Collection, the Sammlung Rosengart, is the best art museum in Lucerne and one of the most rewarding small museums in Switzerland. It grew from the private collection of the Lucerne art dealer Siegfried Rosengart and his daughter Angela, who knew many of the artists personally, including Pablo Picasso, who painted Angela several times. In 2002 the collection opened to the public in a handsome neoclassical former bank building on the Pilatusstrasse, a three-minute walk from the station, and it remains intimate, light and easy to see in a couple of hours. Its two great strengths are Picasso and Paul Klee. The Picasso holdings span his long career, from early works to the late paintings, with drawings, prints and portraits, and the museum also shows photographs of Picasso at home taken by the American photographer David Douglas Duncan, which give a vivid sense of the man. The Klee collection, on the lower floor, is one of the most important anywhere, a large group of works from across his career, full of colour, wit and invention, and it alone justifies the visit for anyone who loves modern art. The rest of the collection reads like a short history of modernism: Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Bonnard, Matisse, Chagall, Miro, Kandinsky, Leger, Braque and the sculptor Henri Laurens, among others, mostly in small, high-quality works that the Rosengarts chose with a dealer's eye. The rooms are calm and uncrowded, the hang is elegant, and texts are available in English. Opening hours vary by season: from 1 November to 31 December 2026 the museum is open daily from 11am to 5pm, except on 25 December; from January to late March 2027 it opens Tuesday to Sunday, with shorter afternoon hours and closed on Mondays; and it closes during Lucerne Carnival, from 4 to 9 February 2027. Admission is moderate, with reductions for students and children, and the Swiss Museum Pass is accepted.

How to visit: start on the ground and upper floors with Picasso and the Impressionists and modern masters, then go downstairs for Paul Klee, saving the best for last. Allow one and a half to two hours. The museum is small enough to see in a morning, leaving the afternoon for the lake or a mountain. Check the website for special exhibitions, guided tours and the exact winter hours, which change at the turn of the year.

Location tips: the Rosengart is on the Pilatusstrasse, a short walk from the station, the KKL and the Chapel Bridge, which makes it an ideal first or last stop in Lucerne, or a perfect plan for a rainy hour between trains. The Kunstmuseum Luzern, on the top floor of the KKL, shows changing exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and makes a good pairing for a full art day.

Who it suits: art lovers above all, especially fans of Picasso and Klee; couples looking for a quiet, beautiful museum; and travellers who want a rainy-day option in Lucerne. Children aged 7 to 16 pay a reduced price, but the collection is better suited to older children with an interest in art. It is not a large museum, so do not expect the scale of the Kunsthaus Zurich; the reward is quality and intimacy.