Description
Stiftung Pro St. Gotthard (1989). National Museum of Gotthard. A long a high Way of History. Pro Natura Foudation, Airolo. 180 Seiten.
The opening ceremony of the National Saint-Gotthard Museum was held on National Festival Day, First August 1986. Regrettably however, fate prevented Albert Wettstein, whose vision the creation of the museum was, from seeing his concept realized.
For the Foundation, the museum is the guardian of the remembrance of the historic significance of the pass for Switzerland and Europe (in the words of Paul Valery, “ remembrance is the future of yesterday“). However, the Saint-Gotthard Foundation rejects any idea of the museum as a definitive, static exhibit. Instead, it sees it as a living entity, called upon to keep alive the awareness of the historic role played by the pass. over centuries, not for Switzerland alone but for all of Europe too. The museum must remain permanently open to any new idea which could help it to broaden or to deepen our knowledge of the history of the Saint-Gotthard, and the Foundation believes that the museum provides the proof that this knowledge, while still incomplete, is already wide and rich.
If – as I hope – this book, dedicated to the National Saint-Gotthard Museum, reawakens in the visitor’s memory the interest I trust he has found in looking round the museum: and if, in one who has yet to cross the Saint-Gotthard pass, it kindles the desire to discover the museum and its historic site for himself, then the goal of the Saint-Gotthard Foundation in publishing this work will have been fulfilled.
