🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

🏛️ swiss-culture-mcp

MCP server for Swiss cultural heritage data from the Federal Office of Culture (BAK) — ISOS townscapes, Living Traditions, cultural prizes, press releases. No API key required.

🌐 English | Deutsch

Overview

swiss-culture-mcp makes Swiss cultural data accessible to AI assistants. The server connects LLMs like Claude with Switzerland's national cultural heritage: from protected townscapes (ISOS) to living traditions of intangible cultural heritage and current cultural awards.

Sources: geo.admin.ch REST API · news.admin.ch RSS · opendata.swiss CKAN · lebendige-traditionen.ch

No API key required. All data sources are publicly available (Open Government Data).

Anchor demo query: "Which protected townscapes are there in the school districts of the city of Zurich, and what living traditions are practised there?"

Features

• 🏘️ ISOS search – Federal Inventory of Swiss Townscapes Worth Protecting by name, canton or settlement type
• 📜 Living Traditions – 228 entries of Swiss intangible cultural heritage
• 🏆 Cultural prizes – Swiss Film Prize, Grand Prix Literature, Music Prize and more
• 📰 BAK press releases – current news from the Federal Office of Culture
• 📦 Open data catalogue – BAK datasets on opendata.swiss
• ☁️ Dual transport – stdio for Claude Desktop, Streamable HTTP for cloud deployment

3 Resources: bak://isos/kantone · bak://isos/kategorien · bak://kulturpreise/uebersicht

Data Sources

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• uv or pip
• No API keys required

Installation

# Recommended: uvx (no install step needed)
uvx swiss-culture-mcp

# Alternative: pip
pip install swiss-culture-mcp

Quickstart

# Start the server (stdio mode for Claude Desktop)
uvx swiss-culture-mcp

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

"Show me all protected townscapes in the canton of Graubünden" "Which living traditions are practised in canton Appenzell?" "Which Swiss cultural prizes were awarded in 2026?"

Configuration

Environment Variables

Claude Desktop Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swiss-culture": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["swiss-culture-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

After restarting Claude Desktop, all tools are available. Example queries:

• "Show me all protected townscapes in the canton of Graubünden"
• "What is the Alphorn and Büchelspiel tradition?"
• "Which Swiss cultural prizes were awarded in 2026?"
• "Is the old town of Stein am Rhein in the ISOS inventory?"
• "Which living traditions are practised in canton Appenzell?"

Cloud Deployment (Streamable HTTP)

For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations without local software):

Render.com (recommended):

1. Push/fork the repository to GitHub
2. On render.com: New Web Service → connect GitHub repo
3. Set environment variables in the Render dashboard
4. In claude.ai under Settings → MCP Servers, add: https://your-app.onrender.com/mcp

# Docker / local HTTP mode (loopback only — safe default)
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable_http MCP_PORT=8000 python -m swiss_culture_mcp.server

# Public bind (DANGEROUS — only behind an authenticating reverse proxy)
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable_http MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 MCP_ALLOW_PUBLIC_BIND=true \
    python -m swiss_culture_mcp.server

⚠️ Security: The server itself has no authentication. Binding to a public interface without an upstream auth layer turns it into an open proxy for the federal data sources. Always run an authenticating reverse proxy (Cloudflare Access, oauth2-proxy, nginx + auth_request) in front of 0.0.0.0 deployments.

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐
│   Claude / AI   │────▶│   Swiss Culture MCP      │────▶│  geo.admin.ch REST       │
│   (MCP Host)    │◀────│   (MCP Server)           │◀────│  news.admin.ch RSS       │
└─────────────────┘     │                          │     │  opendata.swiss CKAN     │
                        │  10 Tools · 3 Resources  │     │  lebendige-traditionen   │
                        │  Stdio | Streamable HTTP  │     └──────────────────────────┘
                        └──────────────────────────┘

Project Structure

swiss-culture-mcp/
├── src/
│   └── swiss_culture_mcp/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── server.py          # All 10 tools, 3 resources
├── tests/
│   ├── conftest.py            # pytest configuration
│   └── test_server.py         # 36 tests (unit + live)
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md            # Contribution guide (English)
├── CONTRIBUTING.de.md         # Contribution guide (German)
├── SECURITY.md               # Security policy & posture (English)
├── SECURITY.de.md            # Security policy & posture (German)
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                  # This file (English)
└── README.de.md               # German version

MCP Protocol Version

This server speaks two protocol eras over the same endpoint. The client's first request on a connection decides which one applies; a later claim from the other era is refused.

Both revisions are pinned in tests/test_protocol_version.py and asserted against the installed SDK, so a Dependabot bump of mcp cannot move either one silently. This server builds no ASGI app to send an initialize through, so the gate asserts the SDK constants rather than a measured response — the weaker form, named rather than left unsaid.

Note that the SDK's LATEST_PROTOCOL_VERSION is an alias for the modern era, not for the handshake era — pinning against it alone would leave the era that current clients actually negotiate free to drift.

Update policy. When the gate fails, do not edit the constant blindly: read the spec changelog between the two revisions, verify the server still behaves, then move the constant, this section, README.de.md and CHANGELOG.md together.

Testing

# Unit tests (no API key required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Integration tests (live API calls)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "live"

Example Use Cases

Schools / Education

"Which protected townscapes are there in the school districts of the city of Zurich?"
→ bak_isos_by_kanton(kanton="ZH") + bak_get_isos_detail(...)

"Find living traditions for a project week on the theme of cultural heritage"
→ bak_list_traditions() + bak_get_tradition_detail(slug="...")

"Which UNESCO World Heritage Sites are also in ISOS?"
→ bak_search_isos(query="...") + bak_get_opendata(query="UNESCO")

City Administration / Spatial Planning

"Is the building at address X within an ISOS perimeter?"
→ bak_search_isos(query="community/place name")