Glacier Garden Museum Extension / Miller & Maranta

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Text description provided by the architects. The Gletschergarten is located at the foot of a large sandstone rock on the Wesemlin hill in the north of the city of Lucerne. The origin of the sandstone goes back to a marine beach that formed the then the tropical region of Lucerne 20 million years ago. Since the Middle Ages, the rock has been used as a quarry and in the early 19th century, the sculptor Thorvaldsen worked on it artistically for the famous Lion Monument. After the uncovering of the glacier pots, which were discovered by chance in 1872, the glacier garden quickly developed into an attraction in the region around Lake Lucerne, which was characterized by tourism, until the turn of the century. The seventeen-thousand-year-old pots were gradually integrated into a guided tour for tourists fascinated by the alpine world.