Laténium Park and Museum of Archeology — Attraction in Hauterive (NE)

Very nice museum. Its collection items range from the medieval periods to deep prehistory (bottom floor to top), but you come here of course for the world-famous late-Celtic period named after this site, La Tène. Access to the museum is easy, with a low-cost parking nearby (the port). When I visited during lunchtime, mid-June, I think I was the only visitor. The magnificent iron tools and weapons (and all the rest) are very well described, and sometimes reconstructed. Sadly, text is only displayed in two local languages (German and French)- it would have been far more logical to have just one local language (French), and English. My second gripe is this tendency to display with heavily contrasting lights. We have a spot here and there in mostly dark, cavernous rooms- a recipe for eye fatigue. When in a museum, I want to read it like a book, with even lightening plse. Worse, the texts were often in the dark, with small print and very hard to read. Also, I was often confused as to where items had been found (each, or each set should have its mini-map and...

Beautiful building and setting but the exhibition itself was not the most interesting. You go on a reverse journey through time learning about archeological findings in the area of Lake Neuchatel from the Middle Ages, back to the Roman, to 1st-2nd century BC and then back to prehistory all the way to the first human remains found in Switzerland. While the idea of the museum is interesting and they have some beautifully recreated models and such, their explanations are dry and written on tiny print (annoying in dim light) and not in English. The collection is mostly comprised on things like weapon fragments, ceramics, precious items found in burials, destroyed stonework, etc. Some of the highlights are an almost full wooden canoe from the prehistoric Lake People and a reconstructed mausoleum from the Gallo-Roman era. I spent about 40mins inside and, again, the building is gorgeous. But I would not return nor would I recommend going out of your way to visit. I also very much don’t recommend it if you don’t read...

This is an extraordinary archeological museum, by far the most interesting I have visited. It appears to have been designed and built around objects and histories that have been excavated in the Neuchâtel region rather than these having been put into a museum building. We visited the first Friday morning of 2025 and were almost by ourselves with a lot of time to follow the very educational and thrilling layout of our past history. And spend some time also in the gardens like we did this beautiful morning. Just now there is a separate exhibition featuring objects and histories from prison camps in France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland set up during WWII that you should not miss. But hurry up, it closes soon! Overall, a great way to...