Photos: Puppet and marionette museum

Known for chocolate, pristine ski slopes, and charming clocks, Switzerland is also famous for its puppetry arts.

The Puppet Museum recently opened in Lugano, Switzerland. The 38th edition of the annual International Marionette Festival in October and November of this year, is connected to the little museum located in the southern Switzerland region bordering Italy.

"This Festival has been created by Michèle and Michel Poletti in 1979 and is still directed by Michel. It’s not the biggest Festival in the world, but one of the few with such a long life," according to an English translation of an online statement about the event.

"Puppetry is an ancestral art that continues to shape the evolution of contemporary artistic movements; the puppet honours matter and life, transposes reality, embodies dreams and calls for a thoughtful, imaginative, better world," according to the Association québécoise des marionnettistes, on its website.