Fondation Pierre Gianadda

The Fondation Pierre Gianadda is the reason most visitors come to Martigny. The foundation mounts four or five major exhibitions per year — typically retrospectives of a single major artist, with a track record that includes Monet, Picasso, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Matisse — and the quality of loans it secures from international museums is remarkable for an institution in a Swiss market town.

The building also contains a permanent Gallo-Roman museum (built over the archaeological remains in the foundations), a vintage automobile museum with about 50 cars including early Bugattis and De Dion-Boutons, and an outdoor sculpture garden with large-scale works by Rodin, Miró, Calder, and others. The sculpture park is included with any museum ticket and is free to wander. Allow at least two hours; the temporary exhibitions alone often take that long.

things to do museum sight
A story
The foundation was built in 1978 over the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple discovered during construction — you can still see the original masonry in the basement. The building was named for Pierre Gianadda, the founder's brother who died in a plane crash, and was intended as a memorial museum. It became, unexpectedly, one of the most successful exhibition venues in Switzerland.