Monte Verità rises on the hills above Ascona and Lake Maggiore, and has always been a magnetic pole of convergence of ideas, trends, experiments and historical figures.
The alternative and vegetarian colony of the early twentieth century marked the birth of the myth of Monte Verità, with the presence of artists, anarchists, philosophers and thinkers, as well as illustrious guests including Hermann Hesse. After a brief period in the early twenties, in which some expressionist artists created a small art centre, the Ascona hill was bought by the banker and German art collector Baron Eduard von der Heydt. Monte Verità became a modern hotel centre which welcomed great personalities from the artistic, political and cultural worlds.
After the Baron's legacy to the Canton of Ticino in the 1950s, it was transformed into a seminar centre at the end of the 1980s, thanks to collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
Today, Monte Verità is a state-of-the-art congress and cultural center run by the Foundation of the same name. Immersed in the quiet and green of a park of more than 7 hectares, with an incomparable view of Lake Maggiore, offers visitors a unique experience.
