Swiss Museum of Transport
The most visited museum in Switzerland, since 1959
Museum of transport, communication and energy; about 13,000 objects on display
MUSEUMS
Verkehrshaus der Schweiz
Haldenstrasse 44, 6006 Lucerne
Haldenstrasse 44, 6006 Lucerne
The Swiss Museum of Transport tells the story of mobility in Switzerland, from trains to aircraft, from cableways to communication and energy, with a planetarium and a cinema. Opened in 1959 on Lake Lucerne, it is the most visited museum in Switzerland.
Covers: details from photos by Nnd, Ank Kumar (CC BY-SA 4.0), Kecko, kitmasterbloke (CC BY 2.0) and Pakeha (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons
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The museum seen from above in October 1972, on the shore of Lake Lucerne
Photo: Comet Photo AG (Zurigo), ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The museum
The Swiss Museum of Transport (Verkehrshaus der Schweiz) tells the story of mobility in Switzerland: trains, cars, boats, aircraft, cableways, communication and energy. Opened on 1 July 1959 on the shore of Lake Lucerne, near the Lido of Lucerne, it is the most visited museum in Switzerland: in 2019 it welcomed 562,605 visitors, and another 318,509 went to the film theatre, the planetarium and the Swiss Chocolate Adventure. Many objects can be touched and tried out.
The history
The idea grew out of the wish for a railway museum. In 1942 the Verkehrshaus der Schweiz association was founded in Zurich, with the Swiss Federal Railways, the PTT, private railways, companies and tourist organisations. Unable to find a site in Zurich, the association accepted the offer of the city of Lucerne: 22,500 m² near the Lido. Work began in 1957 with the support of the Confederation, the city and the canton of Lucerne. Co-founder Alfred Waldis directed the museum until 1979. The first building, by the architect Otto Dreyer, was followed by the planetarium (1969), the Aviation and Space Travel hall (1972), the Hans Erni Museum (1979), the Rail Transport hall (1982), the Navigation hall and, designed by Gigon/Guyer, the entrance (2008) and the Road Transport hall (2009). Since 2004 the objects in the collections have belonged to the Verkehrshaus der Schweiz Foundation.
The collections
The museum displays about 13,000 objects; another 25,000 are in the storage facility in Rain. In the Rail Transport hall there are, among others, the C 5/6 «Elephant» steam locomotive, the largest ever built for Switzerland, the «Crocodile» of the Rhaetian Railway and the large model of the Gotthard railway. The Aviation and Space Travel hall, opened in 1972 in the presence of the astronauts John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, holds some thirty original aircraft, from the 1909 Dufaux 4 biplane, the oldest surviving Swiss aircraft, to Swissair airliners, and the European satellite EURECA, one of the few satellites to return intact from space. In the Navigation hall visitors can see the Mesoscaphe, the Piccards' tourist submarine built for Expo 64 in Lausanne; outside stands the 1848 steamer Rigi, the oldest surviving flush-deck paddle steamer in the world. The Road Transport hall, with its façade covered in 344 road signs, shows carriages, bicycles, motorbikes and cars.
Planetarium, cinema, chocolate and art
The planetarium, opened on 1 July 1969 by John Glenn via a link from New York, is the largest in Switzerland: 246 seats under an 18-metre dome. The film theatre, opened in 1996 as the first IMAX cinema in Switzerland, has a 25.5 × 14 metre screen. Since 2014 the Swiss Chocolate Adventure has told, in a 25-minute journey, the route chocolate took to reach Switzerland. The museum grounds also include the Hans Erni Museum, opened in 1979 and devoted to the Lucerne artist; his large mural Panta rhei hangs in the auditorium.
The museum seen from above in October 1972, on the shore of Lake Lucerne
Photo: Comet Photo AG (Zurigo), ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The façade of the Road Transport hall (Gigon/Guyer, 2009), covered with 344 Swiss road signs
Photo: Nnd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
13 May 1969: Alfred Waldis, director of the museum (left), and Walter Berchtold, president of the Swissair executive board, in front of the DC-3 HB-IRN after its last flight. In 1972 the aircraft would reach the museum across the lake, on a barge
Photo: Swissair, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv/Stiftung Luftbild Schweiz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The 1871 steam locomotive «Gnom», the world's first combined adhesion and rack locomotive, used in the Ostermundigen quarry
Photo: Pakeha, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The SBB «Crocodile» Ce 6/8 II 13254, on display in the museum from 1982 to 2025
Photo: James Petts, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
A show in the planetarium in May 1969, shortly before the opening
Photo: Hans Gerber, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The entrance to the Livemap Switzerland, a 200 m² aerial photograph of Switzerland that visitors walk on in slippers
Photo: Nnd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Swissair's Convair CV-990 «Coronado» on display in front of the museum
Photo: W. Bulach, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The 1888 Vevey–Montreux–Chillon tram, the first electric rail vehicle in Switzerland, known as the «Schoggi-Tram» for its chocolate advertisements
Photo: kitmasterbloke, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Steam railcar Bhm 1/2 no. 9 of 1889 from the Pilatus railway, the steepest rack railway in the world
Photo: Rahil Rupawala, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
The Aviation and Space Travel hall
Photo: Nnd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The open storage of the Road Transport hall: for the «Autotheater» the cars are picked up by a lift and presented to the public
Photo: Nnd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Related projects
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