Video: How to see all of Switzerland in an hour: An ordinary shopkeeper built architectural masterpieces in miniature
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Perhaps everyone dreams of visiting Switzerland, but not everyone who comes here as a tourist manages to explore every corner at once. However, there is a place in Switzerland where all its attractions are collected. There are many miniature parks in the world, but this one has a special atmosphere. Probably because its creation was a real gamble for the author. However, luck loves the brave, and he succeeded.
Pierre Vuynier from Valais came up with this wonderful idea in the middle of the last century. At that time, the 32-year-old man served as an ordinary municipal clerk, and he also had his own grocery store. Until he was obsessed with the dream of a miniature park, his life ran smoothly. However, the more often he thought about this idea, the more clearly he realized that at all costs he had to implement it.
First, Pierre needed to find a large piece of land. After seeing several suitable locations, he stopped at a picturesque provincial town near Lake Lugano in Melida. Pierre managed to convince the head of the local administration of the genius of his idea, and in the end he was able to overcome all bureaucratic obstacles in record time. It also helped that there were disturbing rumors among the villagers that they wanted to turn this natural corner into a tourist center, and when they heard that a certain person wanted to open a park here, they were very happy.
Pierre Vuynier took the land on lease for 30 years. By the way, later the contract was extended to 45 years, then to 60 and, finally, to 86 years. Thus, the miniature park will exist here for at least another 22 years.
In order to have sufficient initial capital, Pierre Vuynier sold his shop and all the family property. He moved with his wife and children to Melida, got like-minded people and got down to work.
So, the first 1:25 scale models were completed, and a small train was also made to carry visitors around the mini-Switzerland, but the park was still almost empty. But in order to recoup the money invested, it was necessary to open the park quickly. Having golden hands, Pierre worked on models of houses, castles, churches all day long, without holidays and weekends. He was just as demanding of his workers.
The park received its first guests in the early summer of 1959. At that time, it was not yet completely ready (the work was completed only a month after the opening), but the summer season began, and it was he who was supposed to bring the creators the maximum income. Pierre was right: even the incompletely completed park on the banks of Lugano really liked the visitors. It became a real hit and in four months Pierre earned 868,000 Swiss francs. At first, this was still not enough to pay all the invoices, but by the end of 1960, Vuynier was already able to pay off all his debts to creditors.
There were especially many visitors in the 1970s, when Italians began to regularly come to Switzerland on weekends for shopping tours. Taking advantage of this, Pierre annually invested huge sums in the amusement park - during this period new models and new attractions appeared here. For PR purposes, the owner invited many celebrities to his mini-Switzerland, often filmed TV commercials here, held festivities. As the author of the project later recalled, Melide became a real gold mine for him.
Years of crisis followed after the 1970s. The Italian lira collapsed, Switzerland became too expensive for guests from Italy, but the park continued to operate. In the spring of 1986, Pierre Vuynier handed over the reins of power to his sons, but he remained by his side, helping with advice and ready to help at any time.
Many years later, recalling his risky adventure, Pierre summed up: "God, I had more courage than brains!"
Now this unique place contains more than 120 mini-attractions. And also one and a half thousand trees and shrubs grow here.
You can get to the park in just five minutes by train, which runs from Lugano Central Station. You can walk around the entire park in about an hour and a half, but the impressions will last a lifetime. The most famous sights of Switzerland are presented here, and many tourists notice that they did not even know about some of them. But now they will definitely visit!
And to make the visit to this unique place even more intense, guests can take a boat trip on the lake.
Read also: Switzerland's "golden" secret. How a poor European country became a paradise
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