Glacier Garden, Lucerne (must see)

Glacier Garden combines outdoor geology with indoor exhibits, and a guided-style description can help visitors follow its layout. The site began with the discovery of glacial potholes—deep, smooth rock cylinders carved by melting ice and stones during the last Ice Age. These formations sit in the open-air section, surrounded by paths and railings that make it easy to study their shapes from different angles. Nearby displays explain how the area once lay beneath glaciers and, much earlier, beneath a warm sea filled with shell-bearing creatures.

As you enter the outdoor area, look straight ahead toward the largest potholes. Their rounded walls show how water and gravel moved in tight spirals. Step a little to the right and look down into a group of smaller depressions; these vary in depth and show layers of rock smoothed by long abrasion. Now turn to your left, where panels describe the fossilized shell beds discovered on the site. The contrast between the warm marine past and the later glacial landscape becomes clear when you compare the smooth potholes with the patterned surfaces of the shells.

Move toward the villa and step inside. Look to your right for the relief maps that depict the country’s terrain in raised form. These maps were created in the nineteenth century and reflect early attempts to visualize landscape on a smaller scale. Continue straight ahead and you will find rooms filled with geological samples, dioramas, and archival material assembled by the museum’s founders. The layout shows how natural history, private collecting, and early scientific curiosity shaped the museum’s character.

Before leaving, follow the signs to the mirror maze. Once inside, look in any direction and notice how the repeated reflections create long corridors that do not actually exist. The maze was added in the 1890s and remains largely unchanged, giving a sense of how the site blended education and entertainment for early visitors. When you exit, step back into the outdoor section and look once more at the rock formations. The combination of geological evidence, historic collecting, and period amusements reveals how the site developed from a scientific discovery into a museum complex.