Top museums in Vaud

Fine arts, photography and contemporary art brought together in one single spot near Lausanne station, in a cultural area that is unique in Switzerland.

The villa of the Hermitage Foundation solely houses changing art exhibitions. What is permanent is the magnificent view of Lake Geneva and Notre-Dame Cathedral, a view that inspired the leading landscape painter Camille Corot.

Located by Lake Geneva in Swiss Vevey, Alimentarium is the first museum in the world devoted exclusively to nutrition. A wonderful and educational vegetable garden also belongs to the museum.

The Château de Prangins was built in the 18th century by Louis Guiguer, a Swiss banker living in Paris, and has hosted illustrious guests from Voltaire to Joseph Bonaparte.Overlooking Lake Geneva, this beautiful listed building is home to the Swiss National Museum.

For centuries the ownership of salt mines meant wealth and power. The salt deposits at Bex, discovered in the 15th century, are still mined today. The salt mines are accessible to visitors, a museum depicts the mining of salt from 1684 to the present.

To experience the Olympics at close quarters and feel the Olympic spirit the way the athletes felt it, to study the history of the Games from antiquity to today - thanks to the latest computer technology and audiovisual media, all of this can be accomplished in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Opened in 1841, the Vaud Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne is one of the oldest museums in Switzerland exclusively dedicated to art. The museum presents several temporary exhibitions each year from its collection of 10,000 works.