Laténium, Archaeological museum in Hauterive, Switzerland
Laténium is an archaeological museum on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel that displays findings spanning several thousand years. The collection ranges from Stone Age tools to Roman pottery and medieval objects.
The museum opened in 2001 after more than 20 years of planning. It was built on discoveries that emerged during construction of the A5 motorway.
The name comes from the Celtic La Tene culture that shaped this region. Visitors can see how people in different periods lived by the lake and what objects filled their daily lives.
The museum sits on the lakeshore and is easy to reach with good parking and walking paths from the city center. Visitors should plan at least an hour and a half to explore the exhibition at a comfortable pace.
A basin on the grounds shows how high the lake stood thousands of years ago, giving visitors a sense of the dramatic landscape changes over time. Alongside it stand reconstructions of prehistoric pile dwellings and ancient bridges showing how people built structures then.
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