From here to Eternity: the focus of Morat's arteplage is a huge monolithic cube clad in plates of rusting steel that floats serenely on the lake.

Unlike the other three arteplages on their customized and landscaped sites, Morat's arteplage is integrated within the town itself. Morat lies on the southern edge of the Morat See, the smallest of the Three Lakes, and has a well-preserved historic core. Jean Nouvel has contributed a series of small interventions to the old town and lakeside area with the aim of transforming a quaint, medieval backwater into a surprising and seductive landscape.

Routes between the various interventions are marked by lengths of rusting ships' chains and the patina of age (on textiles, metal sheeting and tree trunks) forms the main variation on the overall arteplage theme of 'Instant and Eternity'. Whether Morat is ready for Nouvel is a mootish point, but his gentle and intriguing provocations do attract attention.

The most conspicuous intervention is the Monolith, a 34m cube clad in craggy rusted Cor-Ten plating and plonked in the lake, where it broods enigmatically. Reachable only by solar-powered boat, its relative inaccessibility only serves to increase its aura of hermetic otherworldliness.

Despite its apparent solidity and massiveness, it is actually hollow and floats. Visitors can scramble aboard to immerse themselves in two contrasting panoramas. The first, at lower level, is contemporary and electronic, unfolding on a huge circular screen that displays images of Swiss life in all its kitsch, pathos, earnestness and optimism. Above, on the Monolith's upper level, is a vast panoramic painting of the Battle of Morat (one of the few surviving nineteenth-century cycloramas) depicting the heroic (and apparently bloodless, although 12,000 were slaughtered) rout by Swiss confederates in 1476 of the mighty Burgundian army led by Charles the Bold. From the mezzanine there are more panoramic views, this time back to the town and across the lake.

Along the lakeshore Nouvel has choreographed series of structures and events -- a pavilion made from tree trunks, a giant theatre tent, gravel mountains and a septet of vaulted chapels containing installations by artists meditating on universal spiritual themes, The decaying hulk of the Mesoscaphe, the world's first tourist submarine which that was one of the main attractions of the 1964 Expo in Lausanne, completes the surreal assemblage.

Architect

Ateller Jean Nouvel, Paris

Associated architect

Gauer Itten Messerli Maria

Landscape architect

Desvigne & Dainoky

Photographs

Paul Raftery/VIEW