Lausanne punches above its weight in museums—and in art and culture in general, to be honest. For a city of its size, the number and variety and quality of the museums it features continue to surprise me.

In addition to the classic museums offered by most cities, such as fine art and science, Lausanne has a few unique museums that appeal to my love for quirky and off-the-beaten path museum experiences. (Also, all of the museums I’ve found in Lausanne are “human-sized,” meaning you don’t need to read my best practices guide for visiting landmark museums before you go!)

How to organize all these museums in this article? I did my best to put them in rough alphabetical order, based on the first key word in each museum’s name.

(If all this museum visiting makes you hungry, click over to my article on what in Lausanne to eat! And if you’d like overall recommendations for your time in town, I’ve also written a post on what to see and do in Lausanne.)

Espace Arlaud: Art and Culture Expositions

Whether to visit this museum will depend entirely on the exhibit underway, as it exists mainly as a museum for temporary expositions (without, as far as I know, any permanent collection).

If the exhibit appeals to you, you must go—though I’d recommend you consider a visit to Espace Arlaud’s current exhibition even if you don’t think it sounds of interest: Often, the exhibits hosted by the museum present art and cultural combinations that have surprised and delighted me even when I hadn’t heard of the artist or thought the subject matter particularly aligned with my interests.

Collection de l’Art Brut: Modern Art

I’d recommend everyone who visits Lausanne visit the Collection de l’Art Brut—unless they hate museums or don’t really like art of any kind.

Jean Dubuffet, who coined the term “art brut,” donated his art collection to the city of Lausanne in 1971. The city built this museum around his donation; it is the only museum in the world (as far as I know) dedicated to this type of art.

Art brut refers to art created by people unconnected to and uninfluenced by art education and culture. In Dubuffet’s words: “Here we are witnessing an artistic operation that is completely pure, raw, reinvented in all its phases by its author, based solely on his own impulses.”

Sometimes connected to folk art—though folk artists can have art training and influence, so the two categories don’t merge completely—art brut’s creators often experienced mental illness, spent time in prisons or other institutions, or did not have fixed homes.

(Note: Due to the backgrounds of many of the artists in the art brut category, you may find some of the art in the collection unsuitable for young children.)

This collection will surprise you, challenge you, make you think, and expose you to new ideas and perspectives.

Musée Bolo: The History of Information Technology and Video Games

Housed on the campus of the city’s highly respected university dedicated to science and technology, EPFL, Musée Bolo focuses on information technology, digital culture, and video games.

Though the museum has a permanent collection, deciding whether to visit Musée Bolo will depend on whether it has an exposition underway of interest to you: The museum presents its collected artifacts (among others it has borrowed) and educational and contextual information about them around subjects that change regularly.

If the museum’s overall subject matter interests you but you don’t find the current exhibition compelling, you can request a guided tour in French or in English. The museum’s guided tours often have an interactive element and give you the opportunity to ask questions about your specific interest areas.

Espace des Inventions: Children’s Museum

If you have young children (between the ages of, say, 3 and 10), this children’s museum in Lausanne will give them an hour or two of educational play via interactive games that teach them about scientific principles (as do most children’s museums).

Before or after your visit to the museum, you can give your kids free reign to run around and burn off excess energy in the museum’s surrounding park, called the Vallée de la Jeunesse. The park has a rose garden, a paved skatepark, swings and jungle gyms, and other highly underused attractions—you’ll find the park almost always nearly empty. (The city built the park in 1964 for a national Swiss exposition, giving parents a place to leave their kids a while.)

Fondation de l’Hermitage: Art Expositions

After a family donated its house and the surrounding property to the city of Lausanne in the 1970s, the city created a private foundation to develop a museum in the space.

L’Hermitage museum today has a permanent collection that it showcases alongside borrowed works in rooms of the family’s former home, all of which they organize around a theme or exposition that changes throughout the year.

Before or after your museum visit, you can eat in the museum’s restaurant, L’Esquisse, or pass a bit of time in the house’s expansive gardens, which overlook the city center and Lake Geneva—providing a truly outstanding view.

Musée Historique Lausanne: The History of Lausanne

Though I’d consider the Musée Historique Lausanne one of my favorite museums in the city, I visited it originally because I figured I should.

Though small, it’s packed with what I found to be highly interesting information about Lausanne, its origin and development over the years, and the city’s overall historical context in Switzerland. As a resident, the Musée Historique Lausanne helped me understand many things I didn’t and revealed to me history and culture I’d otherwise never have known.

For visitors to Lausanne, this accessible little museum will help you better understand the city during your visit. Lausanne isn’t necessarily a city that flaunts its history and context—you need to search it out.

Musée de la Main: Science, Culture, and Society Expositions

Another Lausanne museum for which you’ll want to base your decision to visit on the current exposition underway: Musée de la Main.

A partnership between the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the city’s medical hub, CHUV, you’ll find the Musée de la Main on the CHUV campus in a dedicated space.

The museum’s expositions provide engaging (and often interactive) experiences on the intersection between science, health, and society.

Each exposition offers guided visits from different subject-matter experts on a set topic. You can request a general tour with a guide as well, for a more in-depth perspective.

The Olympics Museum: The History of the Olympics

I won’t make many friends in Lausanne with this write-up, as the city has a lot of pride here: The Olympics Museum in Lausanne—the so-called “Olympic City” due to serving as the seat of the International Olympic Committee and, therefore, a number of different sports associations and companies—is far from one of my favorites.

Very much managed to promote the Olympics as an institution, you’ll find in The Olympics Museum a short review of the history of the Olympics (the ancient games and the current games) and then segue into a collection of Olympics-related artifacts, composed mainly of gear from former Olympic athletes and all the different medals for all the different modern Olympic games. Then you have a section of the museum filled with games and tests you can play and trial to see how you score in certain fitness and sporting challenges.

The Olympics Museum, to me, would appeal most to families with children between the ages of 5 and 15 and to serious fans of the modern Olympic Games.

Palais de Rumine: Archaeology, Geology, History, Metals, and Zoology

The Palais de Rumine is several museums in one: one dedicated to archaeology and history called MCAH, another to money and medals (part of the MCAH, though a separate collection), one to geology, and yet another to zoology.

Each of these museums has an often extensive (and interesting!) permanent collection of artifacts and the museum also features regular expositions on specific subjects.

Honestly, you’d have a hard time not finding something in the Palais de Rumine not fascinating to you on some level.

I personally adore the Palais de Rumine’s zoology museum, which has the world’s only taxidermied great white shark on display—plus all sorts of other odd dioramas and preserved and taxidermied animals. Though it feels a bit of a throw-back to museums (and cabinets of curiosities) of old, that’s partly what I adore about it. It’s a jumble of different things, often with limited explanation, very little “experience” or “interactive” elements, and it makes my creative, exploratory mind dance.

Plateforme 10: Fine Art, Contemporary Art, and Photography

In the early 2020s, Lausanne opened this single site or campus for several museums formerly spread across the metropolitan area: a museum of contemporary art called MUDAC, a museum of photography called Photo Elysée, and a museum of fine arts called the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne.

They’ve named the campus Plateforme 10, in reference to a train platform, where you would wait for your train. (The campus is just across the street from the Lausanne train station. You can see the tracks from several of the museum windows.)

You’ll find the fine arts museum in one building and the photo and contemporary art collections on two floors in a second building. (The other buildings on campus house cafés, shops, and campus administration.)

The photography museum has a small permanent collection, though whether to spend time there will depend heavily on the temporary exposition currently running.

The contemporary arts museum has a fine (albeit small) permanent collection of contemporary art—though it shines best through the temporary exhibitions it features.

The fine arts museum has a larger permanent collection worth a visit no matter the temporary exhibit currently on offer (though I’ve enjoyed these, too!). Accessible in overall size, Lausanne’s fine arts museum has a surprisingly strong permanent collection spanning different classical epochs and regions and concludes with a lovely tour through its collection of art linked to Switzerland and, more specifically, to Lausanne and the surrounding region.

Altogether, it doesn’t hurt either that the buildings’ architecture is art worth seeing in and of itself.

Musée Romain Lausanne-Vidy: Roman Ruins and History

If you don’t find ancient history of interest, you can take a pass on Lausanne’s museum of Roman history (especially focused on the Lausanne area) and the museum’s nearby Roman ruins.

However! If, like me, you love ancient history—and, well, history in general—and would find interesting a small museum and a small set of uncovered ruins of the old Roman town of Lousanna, you’ll enjoy a visit to this accessible, interesting museum.

As a bonus, the Musée Romain Lausanne-Vidy often has truly interesting temporary expositions as well. I’ve visited several and always come away impressed with the curators’ vision and presentation.

Lausanne Has So Many Museums!

Did I give you an exhaustive list of museums in Lausanne?

Nope.

Certain museums do not open to the public and require advance reservation, such as the museum of forensic science. (Fun fact: Lausanne had the first-ever forensic science school in the world, founded in 1909 by Rudolphe Archibald Reiss.)

Other museums I considered including in this article have extremely limited opening times, such a museum dedicated to phones and another to shoes. Though I might have still included them, the tiny collections on display and limited information available on each artifact makes them, in my opinion, not worth the challenge of your aiming to catch them with an open door.

Can you do all these museums on one visit to Lausanne? Unless you have more time than most visitors, probably not. I’d recommend highly that you visit at least one or two, though!