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amreins
cabinets of curiosities

In this stage of your journey through time, you will explore the sometimes, whimsical objects in the Amrein family's cabinets of curiosities. Many of them date back to the 19th century. But quite a few are also older. They bear witness to the diverse interests of the founding family of the Glacier Garden.

While the women collected furniture and household furnishings, the men were interested in geology and in the booming field of archaeology.

As a result of the increasing lack of space, the former residence was transformed, at an early stage, into a multi-faceted museum.

A particular specialty are the numerous historical landscape reliefs, such as the glacier relief by the famous alpine geologist Albert Heim - a friend of the Amrein family - in the newly designed glacier salon.

ceresio-saurus

The dinosaur with the melodious name "Ceresiosaurus" lived about 200 million years ago in a sea in today's southern Ticino. He was a swift hunter. On his menu list were small dinosaurs and other reptiles. The bones of the Ceresiosaurus were found in 1937 at Monte San Giorgio on Lake Lugano.

MAMMOTH TUSK

Mammoths lived 135'000 - 11'000 years ago in large parts of Eurasia. Characteristic were their enormous tusks. They served on the one hand for defense and on the other hand for the removal of snow and branches for the procurement of food. The glacier garden mammoth tusk (a cast of the original) can be admired in the Glacier Salon. It comes from a gravel pit near Weiach ZH.

the cave bear

Perhaps the cave bear is the first large mammal made extinct by hunting humans. A harmless herbivore, the cave bear lived in the Alps, including the Rigi, until just before the last Ice Age. Willhelm Amrein-Troller, son of the Glacier Garden founder and fanatical prehistoric researcher, found bones of this extinct animal in the Steigelfadbalm cave on the Rigi.

CRYSTAL HALL

An impressive collection with all major rock types of the Swiss Alps. Moreover, in this room you can discover different quartz and beautiful crystal specimens from all over the world.

family hall

Objects and portraits of the founder family's distinguished members:

Joseph Wilhelm Amrein-Troller (1842 - 1881)

Marie Amrein-Troller (1849 - 1931)

Dr. h.c. Wilhelm Amrein-Küpfer (1872 - 1946)

Pilatus hall

This room contains the relief of Mount Pilatus by Xaver Imfeld on a scale of 1:10'000. It is characterized by great attention to detail and by a painting that is close to nature. The legendary and feared local mountain of Lucerne can be easily reached today by mountain railroads.

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