swiss-culture-mcp 1.1.0

MCP Server for Swiss Cultural Heritage Data (BAK) — ISOS, Cultural Prizes, Living Traditions

🇨🇭 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.

🇩🇪 Deutsche Version

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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?"

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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

#	Tool	Description
1	bak_search_isos	Search ISOS townscapes by place name
2	bak_isos_by_kanton	List all ISOS objects in a canton
3	bak_get_isos_detail	Get full details of an ISOS object
4	bak_isos_by_kategorie	Filter ISOS by settlement type (Stadt, Dorf, etc.)
5	bak_isos_statistics	ISOS inventory statistics (sampled by canton)
6	bak_get_news	Current BAK press releases
7	bak_get_kulturpreise	Swiss cultural prizes (Film Prize, Grand Prix Literature, etc.)
8	bak_get_opendata	BAK datasets on opendata.swiss
9	bak_list_traditions	List Switzerland's Living Traditions
10	bak_get_tradition_detail	Get detailed description of a tradition

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

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Data Sources

Source	API Type	Content
geo.admin.ch	REST MapServer	ISOS (Federal Inventory of Swiss Townscapes)
news.admin.ch	RSS Feed	BAK press releases, cultural prizes
opendata.swiss	CKAN REST API	BAK open data datasets
lebendige-traditionen.ch	HTML Fetch	228 entries of intangible cultural heritage

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Prerequisites

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

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Installation

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

# Alternative: pip
pip install swiss-culture-mcp

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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?"

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Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
MCP_TRANSPORT	stdio	Transport: stdio or streamable_http
MCP_HOST	127.0.0.1	Bind host for HTTP transport (loopback by default)
MCP_PORT	8000	Port for HTTP transport
MCP_ALLOW_PUBLIC_BIND	false	If true, permits binding 0.0.0.0 without auth. Set this only behind an authenticating reverse proxy (e.g. Cloudflare Access, oauth2-proxy).
LOG_LEVEL	INFO	DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR — structured JSON logs to stderr

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.

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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  │     └──────────────────────────┘
                        └──────────────────────────┘

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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
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                  # This file (English)
└── README.de.md               # German version

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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"

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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")

"Which BAK datasets are available for GIS integration?"
→ bak_get_opendata() → WMS/WFS URLs for GIS software

AI Working Group / Demos

"Show current cultural policy of the federal government"
→ bak_get_news() + bak_get_kulturpreise()
→ More use cases by audience →

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Safety & Limits

Aspect	Details
Access	Read-only — the server cannot modify or delete any data
Personal data	No personal data — all sources are aggregated, public cultural heritage data
Rate limits	Built-in per-query caps (e.g. max 100 ISOS results, 50 news items, 200 category entries)
Timeout	20 seconds per API call
Authentication	No API keys required — all 4 data sources are publicly accessible
Licenses	All data under open licenses (Open Government Data): geo.admin.ch, opendata.swiss, news.admin.ch
Terms of Service	Subject to ToS of the respective data sources: geo.admin.ch, opendata.swiss, news.admin.ch, lebendige-traditionen.ch

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Known Limitations

• ISOS statistics: Sample-based per canton (not exhaustive for all cantons)
• Living Traditions: HTML scraping – may break if lebendige-traditionen.ch changes its structure
• BAK news/prizes: RSS feed limited to the most recent entries
• opendata.swiss CKAN: Full-text search may return results from other publishers

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Synergies with Other MCP Servers

swiss-culture-mcp can be combined with other servers in the portfolio:

Combination	Use Case
+ swiss-transport-mcp	Cultural tourism: day trips to traditions by public transport
+ zurich-opendata-mcp	Local cultural atlas: ISOS + Zurich city events
+ global-education-mcp	Cultural education in international comparison
+ fedlex-mcp	Cultural property transfer act + BAK enforcement practice
+ swiss-statistics-mcp	Cultural expenditure by canton (BFS data)

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE

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Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

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Credits & Related Projects

• Data: Bundesamt für Kultur (BAK) – Federal Office of Culture
• ISOS: geo.admin.ch – Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
• Traditions: lebendige-traditionen.ch – BAK living traditions registry
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol – Anthropic / Linux Foundation
• Related: zurich-opendata-mcp – MCP server for Zurich city open data
• Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio