Entering the Museum is like taking a trip back in time: exhibits relate the story of lives of sacrifice which clearly hardened the people subject to them, existing with extraordinary dedication in the lee of the nearby mountains, having chosen compromise as the means of eking out a living at barely subsistence level.
There are stories of workers, farmers, cattle raisers and craftsmen, but also those of women and children. MUVIS also tells of journeys undertaken by other travellers over the years: of poets, musicians, artists, writers, diplomats, generals, merchants and pilgrims of every type.
Leonardo da Vinci, Erasmus from Rotterdam, Mozart, the renowned Swiss writer Keller, the novelist Fontane, philosophers Nietzsche and Bakunin, Andersen, the physicist Einstein are just some of the characters who crossed the Spluga over the centuries; as men had fully 9000 years ago, who will be forever associated with our mountain region and how Celts, Romans and hordes of vandals left their mark too whilst heading for Rome, alongside ordinary travellers throughout history.
A visit to the Museum of the Via Spluga is not simply a means of getting to know the traditions and customs of an ancient Alpine valley but it’s a journey back into the political and commercial history of the entire Central Alps which for centuries have been inextricably linked to the greater European history itself.