Istituto Svizzero has contributed to extending Switzerland’s cultural and academic influence outside its borders and above all in Italy since 1947. The Institute develops a broad programme of exhibitions, lectures, concerts, meetings, conferences and book presentations in Rome, Milan, and Palermo. Each year Istituto Svizzero provides residencies for more than a dozen young researchers and artists, thus enabling them to live and work in the same space, to expand their networks of contacts, and to build bridges between the worlds of the arts and science. A stay in Rome offers them a unique experience in the Eternal City with a full immersion in the Italian way of life and in Italian, one of Switzerland’s four national languages.

Rome
Istituto Svizzero enjoys an exceptional location in the heart of the Italian capital, housed in an eclectic style villa built in 1905 by Emilio Maraini, an entrepreneur from Canton Ticino working in the sugar business. The villa and its grounds stand on an artificial hill, a former dump for waste materials, offering a panoramic view of the city from one Rome’s historic districts in the immediate proximity of the Spanish Steps and Villa Borghese.

History
In 1947 Carolina Maraini-Sommaruga, Emilio Maraini’s widow (1853−1916), bequeathed her property to the Swiss Confederation. This generous donor wished to ensure the continuation and development of the hospitality that she and her husband had offered to young artists and researchers. Villa Maraini thus came to house a foundation at the service of the arts and sciences as well as fostering relations between Switzerland and Italy. Villa Maraini has formed an integral part of Switzerland’s international network of academies and institutes of art and research located in Rome ever since 1948.

Milan
Since 1997, the Milanese premises of Istituto Svizzero have served as a platform for Swiss art and culture in the capital city of the region of Lombardy, the nerve centre of the Italian economy, with a particularly dynamic role in the fields of creation and innovation. Located in the proximity of Piazza Cavour, Istituto Svizzero occupies a historical building of the 1950s that also houses the Swiss Consulate, the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Italy and various associations, constituting an authentic Swiss enclave in the heart of Milan. Its programme includes exhibitions, conferences, concerts and meetings, always with the intent of fostering artistic and scientific exchange between Switzerland and Italy.