Muse­um

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segantini_museum_aussen_winter

Architecture

The enorm­ous admi­ra­ti­on and app­re­cia­ti­on that Gio­van­ni Segan­ti­ni and his art enjoy­ed in many parts of Euro­pe found expres­si­on in the con­s­truc­tion of a muse­um dedi­ca­ted to his works. The Segan­ti­ni Muse­um was ope­ned in St. Moritz in 1908, nine years after the artist’s death. The dri­ving force behind the idea was St. Moritz phy­si­ci­an, Oskar Bern­hard, Segantini’s fri­end and patron.

The impo­sing cen­tral part of the buil­ding posi­tio­ned on the steep moun­ta­in­si­de over­loo­king Lake St. Moritz points east­wards towards the Schaf­berg moun­tain, whe­re Segan­ti­ni died. The archi­tect, Nico­laus Hart­mann (1880–1956), based his design on the monu­men­tal pavi­li­on that Segan­ti­ni had crea­ted to house his Enga­di­ne Pan­ora­ma at the Paris World Exhi­bi­ti­on in 1900. The buil­ding with its migh­ty dome looks like a mau­so­le­um, an impres­si­ve, acces­si­ble memorial.

In 1947, Hart­mann drew up various pro­jects to expand the muse­um, which howe­ver were not rea­li­zed. In 1981, a nar­row, semi-cir­cu­lar exhi­bi­ti­on room was added at the rear of the building.

Expansion 1999

To mark the cen­ten­ary of Segantini’s death in 1998/99, the muse­um was com­ple­te­ly reno­va­ted and fur­ther exten­ded by archi­tect Hans-Jörg Ruch. Bes­i­des instal­ling sta­te-of-the-art air-con­di­tio­ning and secu­ri­ty sys­tems, fur­ther modi­fi­ca­ti­ons were made to meet the needs of a modern-day muse­um, inclu­ding secu­ring wheel­chair access, adding a lift, crea­ting store­rooms and exten­ding the foy­er on the first flo­or. In the domed room, the Alpi­ne Tri­ptych was not only rehung, but pla­ced in front of an umbra-colo­red jute fabric cover­ed wall, emu­la­ting the ori­gi­nal color. The com­ple­te­ly rede­si­gned, semi-cir­cu­lar exhi­bi­ti­on room at the rear of the buil­ding was equip­ped with over­head light­ing throug­hout, thus pro­vi­ding opti­mal con­di­ti­ons for pre­sen­ting the works of art.

Expansion 2019

The most recent reno­va­ti­on and expan­si­on of the muse­um took place in the sum­mer and autumn of 2019. A small, new visi­tors’ café, a mul­ti-pur­po­se room for working with stu­dents, hol­ding mee­tings and res­to­ra­ti­on work as well as new sto­rage rooms were crea­ted. The light­ing, heating/cooling and secu­ri­ty sys­tems were also modernized.