The name "Švicarija" comes from a summer house in the Swiss style that was built on the site in the mid-19th century by order of Czech field marshal Josef Radetzky, the master of the nearby Tivoli Catle.

In the early 20th century, the name transferred to the newly built Swiss-style hotel, designed by Slovenian architect Ciril Metod Koch, since the summer house was subsequently demolished.

According to conservator Tatjana Adamič, Švicarija was a hotel until 1930. Three years later, Russian immigrants moved in and after WWII, artists and other residents took over.

Švicarija has always been home to culture, Adamič told the STA. One of Slovenia's foremost authors, Ivan Cankar (1876-1918) lived there for a while and sculptor Ivan Zajec (1869-1952), the author of the Prešeren statue in the Ljubljana city centre, had his studio there before WWI.

The project of renovation was initiated by the Ljubljana municipality seven years ago, but the actual renovation started in June 2015, Jerneja Batič of the municipality told the STA.

Following the refurbishment, the ground floor will be intended for workshops, educational programmes, exhibitions and other events. A small restaurant will be located in the central area.

Art and sculpture studios will be located in the basement and the first floor, next to four residential studios. Two of them will be intended exclusively for young artists.

Artists will be able to move in by the end of the year.

As part of the project, worth EUR 5.7m, the previous residents of the building and artists who had studios there had to be moved. The municipality bought the apartments that were privately owned and decided to continue the tradition of housing artists.

The building will be managed by the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), seated in the near-by Tivoli castle.

According to architect Maruša Zorec, no major changes were made to the building, although the desire was to create bigger, open rooms.

The only notable change to the building's exterior was the demolition of an extension on its northern side, which was in bad shape. A new extension was built instead, which is to house a sculpture studio.

Zorec attempted to preserve the original elements of the building and upgrade them with new features, which however do not stand out. According to Tatjana Adamič, the biggest challenge was the restorations of wooden parts and stencil paintings.

"Švicarija" was protected as a cultural monument of local significance in 2013.