There is a special place about thirty-five kilometers southeast of Basel in the gentle foothills of the Swiss canton of Jura. Basel-based entrepreneur and collector John Schmid has created a sculptural landscape with more than thirty works by Swiss and international artists around the former Schoenthal monastery. But urban art lovers had better exchange their nice shoes for rubber boots to walk the sculpture trail, which meanders through fifty hectares of fields, meadows, and forest.

Twenty-four artists, from Richard Long to Ulrich Rückriem, to Nicola Hicks, David Nash, Tony Cragg, Ian Hamilton Finlay, or Roman Signer, have engaged the natural environs with great sensitivity and realized works that meld perfectly into the landscape. Schmid, who maintains friendly relations with all the artists, acquired the estate and its landmark building in 1985.

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