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.
The park's 2.5 hectares lay under Lake Neuchâtel until 1980; a polder drained them from 1984 to 1986, allowing full excavation of the Champréveyres site before the museum was built. The park is free to enter and holds a Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlement, a Celtic bridge, a dugout canoe and a Gallo-Roman barge.
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