The Cabinet of Curiosities: 150 Years of the Rätisches Museum

Description

Since the Baroque period, princes or wealthy citizens have often presented extraordinary objects in so-called cabinets of curiosities: natural specimens, art objects, antiques, and curiosities. Here, everything came together in a colorful and fascinating mix.

The modern museum, as we know it today, is a bourgeois invention of the 19th century. New exhibition houses were established throughout Europe at that time. The Rätisches Museum also originates from that era: the lawyer, historian, and politician Peter Conradin von Planta-Zuoz (1815–1902) initiated a "Bündnerische Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Kunst" (Grisons Foundation for Science and Art) with the goal of founding a museum. He wanted to counteract the ongoing emigration of valuable cultural assets from Graubünden. On June 8, 1872, the Rätisches Museum opened its first exhibition on the ground floor of the Buol house. Since then, objects related to the history of Graubünden have been collected here. The collection now comprises around 100,000 objects.

To celebrate the anniversary, we invite you on a discovery journey through the museum's treasures based on 150 selected exhibits. For each year since the opening, an object was chosen that found its way into the collection that year. Thus, the exhibition shows a representative cross-section: precious, old, and rare items can be found here just as much as surprising, banal, or quirky ones, all side by side, in the style of the former cabinet of curiosities. The many small stories told in this way not only provide exciting insights into the past but also trace the collection history from its origins to today's historical Museum Graubünden and its tasks.

Highlights

• 150 selected objects from 150 years of museum history
• Insights into the collection of the Rätisches Museum
• Presentation in the style of a cabinet of curiosities

General Information

The anniversary exhibition at the Rätisches Museum in Chur shows a selection of 150 objects collected since the opening in 1872. Each object represents a year and tells its own story. The exhibition offers a diverse insight into the history and culture of Graubünden.

Location

Hofstrasse 1, 7000 Chur, Schweiz

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