Divine venture
Chiesa Santa Maria degli Angeli

Drive north from the city of Lugano for 20 minutes and you’ll reach Rivera in the foothills of the Alps. From here you can hop onto a cable car and take the trip up the mountain into a world of low-hanging clouds and cool, crisp air. As you come to the end of your journey atop Alpe Foppa, 1,530 metres above sea level, you’ll spot what looks like a long walkway or viaduct running parallel to the cable car and almost hanging over the mountain’s edge. Stretching for 65 metres, this is the epic site of Chiesa Santa Maria degli Angeli, a thoroughly modern and avant garde church that mustn’t be confused with an equally stunning 16th-century house of worship of the same name in the city of Lugano featuring Renaissance frescoes.

The mountain-top church was built between 1992 and 1996, and designed by Mendrisio-based Swiss architect Mario Botta. The upper open-air walkway leads to a cross and sweeping views of the valley and mountains. A lower-level hallway and staircase offers a glimpse of a giant bell at the end. Italian painter Enzo Cucchi provided the ceiling artwork, along with further adornments inside the inner chapel, which makes great use of wood and natural light. When you arrive at the altar, look above it to see a giant pair of hands with palms facing towards the heavens.

This is a must for art and architecture lovers for the way in which the space seamlessly connects with its surroundings. The cable car closes between 6 November and 1 April, so plan your visit accordingly. 
montetamaro.ch

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Heart of the region’s culture
LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura & Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana

“Everyone tells me that LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura has changed the city,” says the cultural centre’s director, Michel Gagnon. The Quebeçois is gazing at the striking architecture of the vast cultural complex just inside the lake’s border. When it opened in 2015, the building designed by Ivano Gianola was the largest urbanism intervention from the city of Lugano and it still feels like a statement.

Though it’s clear that LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura is an exceptional resource for a city of 64,000 inhabitants, Gagnon (pictured) isn’t just talking about the way in which it has put Lugano on the cultural map; there is also the “positive impact” it has had on the region. The performance spaces, which include an almost 1,000-seater main hall, have excellent acoustics (thanks in part to a roof made by Venetian artisans) and state-of-the-art technology means that it’s easy to switch things up – an essential feature because LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura’s programming includes opera, dance, theatre, classical music and pop. On Sundays in the glass-filled lobby there are regular and informal free concerts performed by students from the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland. 

As though that weren’t enough, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura hosts one of the venues of Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, a fascinating mix of temporary exhibits such as the current collection of sketches and drawings by Swiss-born expressionist, surrealist and Bauhaus aficionado Paul Klee, which runs until January. There is also a permanent collection that runs from 1850 to 1950 and includes works by Claude Monet, Luigi Rossi and Marianne von Werefkin. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the end of the permanent collection room overlook the lake. Take a seat here on chairs that could be confused for an art installation. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions. 
luganolac.ch; masilugano.ch

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Forthcoming LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura highlights:

1. Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, ‘Hollow Bones’, 22 October An experimental performance overseen by Jacopo Godani.

2. Ballet Preljocaj, ‘Swan Lake’, 9 to 10 DecemberThe French ballet company returns to LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura.

3. Orchestra della Svizzera italiana with Bomsori Kim, 15 DecemberDirected by Robert Trevino with Bomsori Kim on violin.

4. Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, 20 March 2023The boundary-pushing Hungarian orchestra comes to Lugano.

5. David Bowie & Enda Walsh, ‘Lazarus’,18 May 2023Bowie’s co-written rock opera, directed by Valter Malosti and interpreted by Manuel Agnelli.

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Art of living
Buchmann Lugano

Buchmann Lugano is a contemporary art gallery that has been a fixture of the Swiss scene since 1975 and in Lugano since 2013. A pioneer of emerging artists such as Matias Spescha and Urs Lüthi, the gallery previously occupied spaces in St Gallen, Basel and Agra. Run by elegant Elena Buchmann-Sprenger (pictured right), it is located in an early 20th-century shopping gallery near Palazzo Reali. Born in Milan, Buchmann-Sprenger says that it was her exposure to Italian artists who knew her parents that nurtured her love of art. The gallery represents a roster of artists including Wolfang Laib, Lawrence Carroll and British sculptor Tony Cragg, and recently held an exhibition by Fiona Rae, showing the British artist’s “Row Paintings” (pictured below) from the 1990s alongside more recent works. “This is my passion and my life,” says Buchmann-Sprenger.
buchmanngalerie.com

 

Art of living
Buchmann Lugano

Artphilein in Paradiso and Lugano, which features a foundation, bookshop, library and exhibition spaces, is focused on all things photography. The Paradiso bookshop has limited-run prints and its own imprint. “Often these are focused on landscapes that reveal a characteristic,” says Artphilein’s Giorgia Vanzolini (pictured). They can also delve into social and political issues.

In Lugano there is a library and an exhibition space called Focus. Exhibitions have included Martina Parolo and work by photographers who won grants from Turin’s Liquida Photofestival.
artphilein.org

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Secret source
Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati

No trip to Lugano would be complete without a visit to this breathtaking collection of art. This world-renowned exhibition space doesn’t flaunt itself (it’s only open from Fridays to Sundays) but is highly valued by those in the know. Established when collectors Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati decided to open up a part of their collection to the public, the space is deceptively large – part of it runs under another building and is some 1,200 sq m.

The focus of the 200-plus works divided between the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions is on Italian art and the windowless space offers an education in some of the great names of 20th century, with a focus on futurism through works by Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, Enrico Prambolini up to the more recent movements such as Arte Povera and eye-catching work by artists such as France’s Yves Klein and Germany’s Wolfgang Tillmans.
collezioneolgiati.ch

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Nestled between lake and mountains, the region of Lugano offers some stunning natural views but its manmade visual identity is also striking – and renowned around the globe by experts in art and architecture. These institutions are unmissable fixtures of the area’s cultural offering.