An insider guide to Carona, Meret Oppenheim’s creative refuge

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My connection to Carona goes back more than a century. It begins with my great-grandfather, Theo Wenger, a pastor-turned-knife manufacturer who started the Wenger factory that is now owned by Victorinox. In 1917 he bought Casa Costanza as a holiday home in the medieval village’s main piazza. It later became home to my grandparents when they fled Nazi Germany, then to my father. But it is my aunt, the artist Meret Oppenheim, who really made the place her own. It became her Gesamtkunstwerk. 

When I was a child growing up in Basel, we would spend summers in Carona. My brothers and I were always happy to roam around, playing in the forest and the walled garden just outside the village. I remember the women wearing black dresses and zoccoli [wooden clogs], walking around with big baskets of hay and sitting in the little alleys to chat and knit. 

In the 1960s, my dad and Meret bought another house on the square, Casa Aprile, where my elder brother Christoph created a commune of artsy people, starting with his then best friend David Weiss [who went on to international fame with fellow Swiss artist Peter Fischli]. Meret, who moved in the same circles as Picasso, Man Ray and Duchamp, became a kind of mentor to all these youngsters. 

I moved here full-time 30 years ago, after following in my grandfather’s footsteps and becoming involved in psychology as a teacher of the Hoffman Process. What I like about Carona is that it’s very human. There is a real community; everybody greets each other. It’s still the village life that I knew as a kid, but it’s also well-connected. You can get to Lugano on the bus in 20 minutes; from there to Zürich is two hours by train. And I can drive to Milan in an hour and 15 minutes. My brother Michael and I live in Casa Aprile – I have the lower two floors; he has the top two. It’s like a commune again. 

You can go uphill with a gondola, then hike on the crest of the mountain from Tamaro to Lema

Meret died in 1985, which was too bad because she was really on a roll with her work. She’s buried in the little cemetery at the village’s Romanesque church of Santa Marta, and there’s a bronze fountain of hers in the piazza that’s intertwined with snakes. Since her death I’ve transcribed thousands of her documents and letters and had them published. I look after her estate and have helped with major shows like the one at MoMA a few years ago.

A lot of people come to Carona to go hiking. In the forest there is another wonderful church called Madonna d’Ongero; inside it’s full-on baroque. There’s also a great view over Lake Lugano and the surrounding vineyards. You can see the village of Montagnola, where the German-Swiss novelist Hermann Hesse used to live; he would walk to Carona and wrote about the village in Klingsor’s Last Summer.

We’re about five minutes to the Roccolo, an old bird-hunting tower. Further to the north towards Bellinzona, you can go uphill with a gondola then hike on the crest of the mountain, from Monte Tamaro to Monte Lema. Back in Carona, you can take in the Parco San Grato, a botanical garden that in late April and early May is covered with rhododendron and azalea, beautifully coloured and scented. Ristorante Posta also has a beautiful garden that in springtime is totally covered in wisteria. 

Hermann Hesse wrote about the village in Klingsor’s Last Summer

Grotto del Pan Perdü is very typical of the region, serving grilled and braised meat, ossobuco, polenta and risotto. But the place I go to most often is at the tennis club: Bistrot del Tennis. It’s nothing fancy but it’s the perfect spot to sit and enjoy the sunset – and really good wines. The man who runs it, Luciano Vanacore, is from Sorrento and his food is fantastic – wonderful pasta, fish, meat and antipasti; his menu changes all the time. For visitors, the Villa Carona Hotel is a very charming place to stay, with a gorgeous garden and a small pool.

I’m part of an association that runs the Galleria La Loggia, where we put on shows of mostly local artists, and a subgroup of us organise CaronaImmagina, an outdoor photography biennial that runs across the whole village. In Lugano, MASI [Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana] is a great museum – both in the historic Palazzo Reali and the modern LAC site, where there was a wonderful Meret Oppenheim show in 2017; the current exhibition focuses on David Weiss and his time in Carona. The building also has a concert hall with exceptional acoustics; they put on performances by the local symphony orchestra, plus theatre, ballet and even opera.

For dinner nearby, my personal favourite is Bottegone del Vino – a wine bar and restaurant, bang in the city centre. They only have a few things on the menu but they’re always good, and the waiters have been the same for the past 20 years. When you’re a bit tired of pasta and risotto, a new addition is Ghost Bagel, run by a young American guy. My late husband Douglas was Canadian, and he missed burgers and bagels when he was living here. These are real New York bagels – outstandingly good. 

We have lots of fancy shops alongside the lake in Lugano, but up towards the cathedral there are a few little stores I particularly like, such as Boutique Scrupoli, which sells handpicked fashion pieces, more on the classical side. 

Meret was elegant in her whole demeanour. She bought very nice clothes, but not many. Whenever she walked into a room people would take notice. Today, her spirit lives on in Carona. I would love Casa Costanza to become a museum, but I need funding. The more people who know about Meret Oppenheim, the better. 

David Weiss, The Dream of Casa Aprile, Carona 1968-1978 is at MASI Lugano until 1 February 2026. Meret Oppenheim: My Album, edited by Lisa Wenger and Martina Corgnati, is published by Scheidegger & Spiess