Swiss Customs Museum

Customs Museum

The Swiss Customs Museum is a museum in Cantine di Gandria on Lake Lugano , which conveys the duties of the customs authorities and the work of the border guards . The museum is operated by the Federal Customs Administration and is part of the Swiss National Museum .

Building and location

The customs museum is housed in a former border guard post that was used from 1857 to 1920 and was intended to prevent smuggling across the nearby border between Italy and Switzerland . The building is located on the shores of Lake Lugano opposite the village of Gandria and can only be reached by boat.

Emergence

The collection of the customs museum goes back to the border guard officer Angelo Gianola, who kept items from his daily work in the vacated border guard post. The Customs Museum was established in 1943 and has been supported by the Swiss National Museum since 1970 .

exhibition

On the one hand, the exhibition shows the work and life in a border guard post in the 19th and 20th centuries. On the other hand, the tasks of modern border protection (prevention of smuggling, drug searches, detection of product piracy , safeguarding the protection of species , control of precious metals, checking of travel documents) are conveyed. In particular, there is plenty of space for importing duty-unpaid or illegal goods, which is why the museum is colloquially referred to as the "smuggling museum". The exhibition is also suitable for children.