Am Romerholz Collection

Oskar Reinhart, from a Winterthur trading family, spent decades assembling a collection of extraordinary quality and left it and his house to the Confederation on his death in 1965, on condition that the arrangement stay as he had it. The result is a domestic setting rather than a gallery: Cranach, Bruegel, Rubens, El Greco and Goya hang alongside Corot, Courbet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne and Van Gogh, in rooms with furniture, in a villa of 1915 by Maurice Turrettini on a wooded hillside. The concentration of first-rank pictures per square metre is remarkable for a private house, and because it stays a house the experience is unlike a museum. A second Reinhart collection of Swiss, German and Austrian art sits down in the town.

The main sights

• Old masters and Impressionists together - Cranach and Goya beside Cezanne and Van Gogh.
• A house, not a gallery - hung in the rooms Reinhart lived in.
• A 1965 bequest with conditions - the arrangement kept as he left it.
• A second collection in town - the Swiss and German holdings separately.

When to go

All year, closed Mondays. Half a day.

What to expect

It is up a hill outside the centre - bus or a walk. The house is small and busy at weekends. Photography is restricted. Some rooms close for conservation. Labelling is in German.

Nearby

Winterthur's other museums are in the town; Zurich is a short train ride south.

Key facts