The visit

The Hermann Hesse Museum is housed in the Camuzzi Tower, adjacent to the picturesque Casa Camuzzi where the writer lived from 1919 to 1931. Here he found peace and solitude, a mild climate and a landscape of exceptional beauty, which he needed both personally and for his creative work. In Montagnola, Hesse wrote many of his most famous works, such as "Siddhartha", "Narcissus and Goldmund" and "The Glass Bead Game". It was also here that he began to paint, drawing inspiration from the marvellous colours of the Ticino landscape and its Mediterranean atmosphere.

A permanent exhibition evokes the atmosphere in which the Nobel Prize winner lived for over 40 years, allowing visitors to gain an in-depth understanding of the different phases of the writer’s career. Personal belongings, numerous photographs, books and watercolours offer a glimpse into Hermann Hesse’s life whilst exploring key themes in his work.

The museum also organises annual temporary exhibitions, pop-up exhibitions and a wide-ranging programme of events, lectures, concerts, walks and readings, making it a vibrant meeting place for local and international visitors.

The Golden Hill in company of Hermann Hesse

In the calm of the serene enchantment of this region the author of “Siddhartha” certainly found the peace he always sought and that allowed him to bring to life some masterpieces that are today – half a century after his death – some of the most widely read and appreciated books in the world. A "homeland of the soul": this is what the Golden Hill became for Hesse, to be discovered with the audioguide that may be obtained at the museum and that takes the visitor through a beautiful landscape, accompanied by a voice and on the footsteps of the writer himself. You will see his favourite places, the houses where he lived, the woods where he enjoyed walking and painting, the grottos (taverns) where Hesse would spend a few hours in the shade.

If you have more time…

Itinerary: On the Footsteps of Hermann Hesse (2.5h, see map)

The walk with the audioguide "On the footsteps of Hermann Hesse" starts from the museum, covers eleven points and unravels between Montagnola and Gentilino following the stages of the author's life in Ticino.

Leaving the Museum you can enjoy the Casa Camuzzi, Hesse's first house. Cross the centre of Certenago, that appears in his watercolours, before reaching the Sant’Abbondio complex in Gentilino, in which cemetery lays Hesse next to his wife Ninon. Walking through the woods, you will come across grottos where, as the author enjoyed doing, you may take a rest. Here you can imagine meeting Hermann Hesse with easel and brushes, busy fixing on paper the most beautiful spots of the region, or you can listen to the reconstruction of his talks with the gardener or with the elderly neighbour. Thanks to the beautiful images exhibited in the Museum, you might even think you are seeing him hoeing the ground, taking care of plants or preparing a small fire with the garden's brushwood...
After a clearing in the forest, you reach the street "Via Ligüna" with a beautiful view of Monte Lema, and finally the houses where Hesse lived and worked: Casa Rossa and Casa Camuzzi (today private homes).