Monte Verità Foundation: A Century of Utopian Art and Nature in Ascona

Founded in the early 1900s by Ida Hofmann and Karl Graser with a group of idealist artists, Monte Verità on a hill above Ascona, Lake Maggiore, was a utopian colony embracing naturism, sunbathing, and organic living in 'air-light huts.' Later, banker and collector Eduard Von der Heydt acquired the hill and commissioned German architect Emil Fahrenkamp to build a Bauhaus-style hotel with a lakeside terrace and exhibition hall for his collection of Oriental prints and objects. A century later, Monte Verità has become the Fondazione Monte Verità, a renowned cultural center hosting conferences and art exhibitions. The park, redesigned with contemporary sculptures, now includes a photography collection of curator Harald Szeemann, former Venice Biennale director, who organized early contemporary art shows there in the late 1970s and considered the site a 'total work of art.' His archive of books, documents, letters, photographs, and exhibition maquettes, now acquired by the Getty Foundation, is housed at the foundation. The park also features monumental trees like Rhododendron arboreum, plane trees, conifers, a Japanese zen garden, and a tea plantation. Visitors can explore a museum trail, the Tea House, the magnetic Arcobaleno di Chiara path, and four panoramic viewpoints over Ticino valleys and Lake Maggiore.