Locarno - WikiHQ

Locarno (; ; Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Swiss town and municipality in the district Locarno (of which it is the capital), located on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore at its northeastern tip in the canton of Ticino at the southern foot of the Swiss Alps. It has a population of about 16,000 (proper), and about 56,000 for the agglomeration of the same name including Ascona besides other municipalities.

The town of Locarno is located on the northeastern part of the river Maggia's delta; across the river lies the town of Ascona on the southwestern part of the delta.

Locarno is the 74th largest city in Switzerland by population and the third largest in the Ticino canton, after Lugano and Bellinzona.

The official language of Locarno is Italian.

The town is known for hosting the Locarno International Film Festival which takes place every year in August and involves open-air screenings at the main square, the Piazza Grande. It is also known for the Locarno Treaties, a series of European territorial agreements negotiated here in October 1925.

History

Prehistoric Locarno

In 1934, in the vicinity of today's Via S. Jorio, a necropolis with 14 urn graves from the Early Bronze Age (about 14th century BC) were found. Some of the urns were directly buried, while others were placed in boxes of uncut stone. The urns contained, in addition to burned bones, bronze ornaments, which had some fire damage, including, bangles, hairpins with conical head and slightly thickened neck, rings and knives. Similar urns were also discovered in the district of S. Antonio, which was probably also a small cemetery. The ceramic and bronze objects date from the Canegrate culture (named after a large necropolis in the province of Milan). However, no traces of the settlement have been discovered.

In 1935, a large necropolis was discovered at Solduno. The over 200 graves cover nearly a thousand years, from the La Tène culture to the 3rd century AD. Many of the La Tène era grave goods (particularly from the 3rd–1st centuries BC) are Celtic-style fibulae or brooches. These objects demonstrate a cultural influence from regions north of the Alps. However, the ceramic objects are indigenous to Golasecca culture which spread into Ticino and Lombardy.

Capitanei di Locarno

The capitanei were a group of prominent noble families who emerged in the early Middle Ages and led Locarno. The term is first mentioned in a document granting market rights to the town by the Emperor Frederick I in 1164. This title was originally reserved only for the direct vassals of the king's fief. The lower vassals were known as valvassores, but could have been awarded the title of capitanei as a special concession. The original capitanei were probably descendants of the old Lombard noble family of Da Besozzo from the county of Seprio, a historic region of Lombard Italy which comprised areas in southern Ticino and modern-day Italian provinces of Varese and Como on the western side of Lake Maggiore, and was centred in Castelseprio, some 20 kilometres south of Locarno.

Around 1000, the family was granted a fief in Locarno by the schismatic Bishop of Como Landolfo da Carcano. The capitanei were given the right to manage the property of the Church entrusted to the local pieve, they had the rights of immunity and coercion, but were not owners of the village cooperatives' (vicini) land, with the exception of the churches and royal estates. They did not have the right of high justice so their political power was limited. However, they played an important role in the later conflicts in the 13th and 14th centuries between the Guelphs and Ghibellines and in the wars between Como and the Duchy of Milan.

In Locarno, during the Reformation period in the 16th century, two of the three great feudal families of capitanei, the Muralto and the Orelli families, left the town and moved to Zürich. A branch of the Muraltos was established in Bern. The third great Locarno family, the Magoria, remained in Locarno. The capitanei retained a central role in Locarno's politics until 1798. In 1803, the lands and rights of the capitanei were integrated into the political municipality of Locarno.

Early Locarno

thumb|upright=1.3|Harbour of Locarno. Trade along the lake allowed Locarno to flourish

Starting in the Lombard period (after 569), the area around Locarno (and presumably the town) was part of the county Stazzona and later the Mark of Lombardy. Locarno is first mentioned in 807 as Leocarni. In German, it came to be known as Luggarus, Lucarius, Lucaris.

In the 16th century, the Humiliati order was suppressed and St. Catherine's church and monastery closed. All three ruling groups of Locarno agreed to convert the church and monastery into the Hospital S. Carlo. The Hospital remained until 1854 when it closed, due to financial reasons.

thumb|left|Piazza Grande

The Constitution of 1814, established Locarno, Bellinzona and Lugano as the capitals of the canton, in a six-year rotation. Locarno was the capital of the canton in 1821–27, 1839–45, 1857–63 and 1875–81. In 1838–39, on the initiative of a group of notables, a government building was built. It was sold in 1893 to a private company. It then became the headquarters of Credito Ticinese and since 1917 it has been the headquarters of the Electricity Company of Sopraceneri. Locarno was repeatedly the scene of political clashes. In 1839 and 1841, uprisings against the government broke out. In 1855, a murder in a coffee house was used as a pretext for a coup of radicals (pronunciamento). Another coup, the Ticino coup of 1890, did nothing to change the balance of power between the parties in the city. After a liberal mayor ruled for 35 consecutive years (1865–80), a conservative mayor ruled for another 36 years (1880–1916).

The municipality is the capital of its district. Locarno is located on the left shore of Lake Maggiore. The city is made up of the old town (historic settlement centre), the new town (Nuovo quartiere) toward the lake and the land district (quartiere Campagna) toward Solduno. The area of the municipality extends from the lake (elevation ) to the mountains above the city (Monti della SS Trinità, Bre, Cardada and Cimetta, the highest point at ). It includes a large part of the Magadino valley along with the right side of the Ticino river, and stretches from the Bolle di Magadino to Monda Contone.

Climate

Located on the southern Alpine foothills, it is amongst the warmest places in Switzerland, along with Lugano and Grono. It is also amongst its wettest places, receiving of precipitation per year (in comparison Stalden receives only 545 mm). The wettest month are August and October, during which time Locarno receives an average of and of precipitation respectively. The driest month of the year is February with an average of of precipitation over 4.5 days. Although a wet location in general, Locarno averages 99.3 precipitation days and as much as 2171 hours of sunshine per year, or 56% of possible sunshine. The high number of sunshine hours and precipitation is explained by the high intensity of rainfalls that affect the region. In comparison, Sion has fewer sunshine hours with three times less precipitation. The Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as humid subtropical (Cfa).

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a lion rampant argent.

Demographics

thumb|upright|Old city of Locarno

Locarno has a population () of . , 33.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 3.7%.

Most of the population () speak Italian (76.6%), with German being second most common (10.5%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (3.1%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 1,528 speak German, 189 people speak French, 11,153 people speak Italian, and 27 people speak Romansh. The remainder (1,664 people) speak another language.

, the gender distribution of the population was 46.5% male and 53.5% female. The population was made up of 4,421 Swiss men (29.1% of the population), and 2,636 (17.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 5,654 Swiss women (37.2%), and 2,474 (16.3%) non-Swiss women.

, there were 6,730 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.1 persons per household. there were 904 single family homes (or 42.1% of the total) out of a total of 2,147 inhabited buildings. There were 252 two-family buildings (11.7%) and 480 multi-family buildings (22.4%). There were also 511 buildings in the municipality that were multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose).

The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.63%. there were 8,647 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 3-room apartment of which there were 3,068. There were 856 single-room apartments and 877 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 6,709 apartments (77.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,695 apartments (19.6%) were seasonally occupied and 243 apartments (2.8%) were empty.

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following table:

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" Year

! rowspan="2" Population

! rowspan="2" Italian speaking

! rowspan="2" German speaking

! rowspan="2" Catholic

! rowspan="2" Protestant

! Colspan="4" Other

! rowspan="2" Swiss

! rowspan="2" Non-Swiss

! Total Other

! Jewish

! Islamic

! No religion given

| 1591 || 3,725 || || || || || || || || || ||

| 1597 || 3,029 || || || || || || || || || ||

| 1719 || 3,515 || || || || || || || || || ||

| 1769 || 1,751 || || || || || || || || || ||

| 1795 || 1,471 || || || || || || || || || ||

| 1801 || 1,308 || || || || || || || || || ||

| 1824 || 1,463 || || || || || || || || || ||

| 1836 || 1,572 || || || || || || || || || ||

| align="center" | 1850 || align="center" | 2,944 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 2,938 || align="center" | 6 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 2,425 || align="center" | 519

| align="center" | 1870 || align="center" | 2,885 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 2,903 || align="center" | 1 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 2,318 || align="center" | 603

| align="center" | 1888 || align="center" | 3,430 || align="center" | 3,375 || align="center" | 37 || align="center" | 3,399 || align="center" | 22 || align="center" | 18 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 2,664 || align="center" | 766

| align="center" | 1900 || align="center" | 3,981 || align="center" | 3,825 || align="center" | 107 || align="center" | 3,893 || align="center" | 59 || align="center" | 49 || align="center" | 1 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 2,513 || align="center" | 1,468

| align="center" | 1910 || align="center" | 5,486 || align="center" | 5,117 || align="center" | 278 || align="center" | 5,177 || align="center" | 178 || align="center" | 91 || align="center" | 3 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 3,104 || align="center" | 2,382

| align="center" | 1930 || align="center" | 6,575 || align="center" | 5,570 || align="center" | 883 || align="center" | 5,846 || align="center" | 566 || align="center" | 122 || align="center" | 8 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 4,464 || align="center" | 2,111

| align="center" | 1950 || align="center" | 7,767 || align="center" | 6,428 || align="center" | 1,090 || align="center" | 6,887 || align="center" | 751 || align="center" | 249 || align="center" | 9 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 5,980 || align="center" | 1,787

| align="center" | 1970 || align="center" | 14,143 || align="center" | 11,408 || align="center" | 2,000 || align="center" | 12,491 || align="center" | 1,387 || align="center" | 735 || align="center" | 32 || align="center" | 8 || align="center" | 139 || align="center" | 9,603 || align="center" | 4,540

| align="center" | 1990 || align="center" | 13,796 || align="center" | 10,817 || align="center" | 1,604 || align="center" | 11,108 || align="center" | 1,310 || align="center" | 1,375 || align="center" | 7 || align="center" | 129 || align="center" | 728 || align="center" | 9,440 || align="center" | 4,356

| align="center" | 2000 || align="center" | 14,561 || align="center" | 11,153 || align="center" | 1,528 || align="center" | 10,179 || align="center" | 1,072 || align="center" | 1,880 || align="center" | 15 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | 1,167 || align="center" | 9,430 || align="center" | 5,131

Heritage sites of national significance

There are nine Swiss heritage sites of national significance in Locarno. Three of the sites are churches; the church of S. Francesco and former convent, the church of S. Maria Assunta (new church) and the house of the canons and the church of S. Maria in Selva with Cemetery. The Castello Visconteo complex (part of which may have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci

File:Locarno Castello Visconteo.JPG|Castello Visconteo

File:Locarno Castello Visconteo 2.JPG|Castello Visconteo

File:Santa Maria in Selva, affreschi, XV sec 02.jpg|Santa Maria in Selva mural

File:Santa Maria in Selva, affreschi, XV sec.jpg|Santa Maria in Selva mural

</gallery>

Main sights

thumb|Madonna del Sasso

thumb|Cardada

Locarno has a number of interesting sights that draw tourists year-round.

Astrovia Locarno

The Astrovia Locarno is a 1 : 1,000,000,000 scale model of the Solar System. The Sun can be found at the end of Via Gioacchino Respini where the cycle path, which runs alongside the river Maggia, starts. Pluto, the final planet in the model, can be found away from this starting point in the village of Tegna.

Madonna del Sasso, Cardada and Cimetta

The sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso in Orselina above the city is the principal sight and goal of pilgrimage in the city.

The founding of the sanctuary goes back to a vision of the Virgin Mary that the Franciscan brother Bartolomeo d'Ivrea experienced on the night of 14/15 August 1480. The interior is highly decorated, and a platform has views of the city.

The Locarno–Madonna del Sasso funicular links Locarno city centre with the Madonna del Sasso sanctuary and Orselina. From Orselina, a cable car operates to the top of Cardada (el. ), and a chair lift goes further to the top of Cimetta (el. ).

Castello Visconteo

Castello Visconteo, on the edge of the old town, was built in the 12th century, probably as the residence of a Captain Orelli, who remained true to the Emperor. In 1260, it fell into the hands of the Ghibellines. In 1342 the Visconti of Milan, for whom it is now named, attacked the castle from both the land and the lakeside and took it. It first came into the hands of the Eidgenossen in 1503. Today, only a fifth of the original structure remains. Most of that dates from the 15th and 16th centuries. Only the foundation remains from the original structure.

thumb|upright=1.5|Locarno beach

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 34.88% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (19.72%), the CVP (18.75%) and the Ticino League (9.54%). In the federal election, a total of 3,303 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 40.5%.

In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 8,555 registered voters in Locarno, of which 4,291 or 50.2% voted. 90 blank ballots and 15 null ballots were cast, leaving 4,186 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 913 or 21.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the SSI (with 822 or 19.6%), the PS (with 790 or 18.9%) and the PPD+GenGiova (with 703 or 16.8%).

In the Consiglio di Stato election, 66 blank ballots and 23 null ballots were cast, leaving 4,202 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PS which received 946 or 22.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 837 or 19.9%), the SSI (with 768 or 18.3%) and the PPD (with 714 or 17.0%). Of the working population, 10.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 44.1% used a private car.

Religion

thumb|Church of S. Antonio Abate

From the , 10,179 or 69.9% were Roman Catholic, while 1,072 or 7.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 2,307 individuals (or about 15.84% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 1,003 individuals (or about 6.89% of the population) did not answer the question. 146 vocational students were attending school full-time and 293 who attend part-time.

The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields. There were 41 students in the professional program.

, there were 1,484 students in Locarno who came from another municipality, while 405 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Transport

Air

Locarno Airport is currently operating only as a military airport. The nearest passenger airport is Milan Malpensa Airport, which is located 114 km south of Locarno.

Rail

Locarno railway station, situated in Muralto, is served by the Swiss Federal Railways' Giubiasco–Locarno railway, a branch from the Gotthard railway. Underground, there is a terminal for the Domodossola–Locarno railway, a metre gauge link to Italy operated in Switzerland by the Regional Bus and Rail Company of Ticino.

Crime

In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the Swiss Criminal Code (running from murder, robbery and assault to accepting bribes and election fraud), in Locarno was 77.9 per thousand residents, which was 20.6% higher than the national average (64.6). During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 27.2 per thousand residents. This rate is 138.6% greater than the rate in the district, 209.1% greater than the cantonal rate and 174.7% greater than the national rate. The rate of violations of immigration, visa and work permit laws was 2.6 per thousand residents. This rate is lower than average, only 72.2% of the rate in the canton and only 53.1% of the rate for the entire country.

Sports

Locarno's football team is FC Locarno. In 2018, the club filed for bankruptcy, which meant an automatic relegation to the ninth and lowest tier of Swiss football. As of 2024, FC Locarno competes in the fifth-highest tier of Swiss football, 2. Liga Interregional.

Image gallery

File:Stadtpark · Walk of Fame - Locarno.jpg|Walk of Fame Locarno is a collection of the handprints made by some of the top musicians who have visited Locarno for the Moon and Stars music festival.

File:Piazza grande, Locarno (Switzerland).jpg|A landmark and the heart of Locarno. A meeting place for visitors and locals and a venue for major events.

File:Gioco di scacchi di strada, Locarno.jpg|Giant Chess Boards on the street in Locarno in Piazza Filippo Franzoni

File:Toro di Remo Rossi a Locarno.jpg|In 1975, on the occasion of the 50th peace conference between Germany, France, Belgium, England, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia, the artist Remo Rossi donated the Toro (Bull) sculpture to the city of Locarno.

File:Sala conferenze dell’Ex Palazzo del Governo a Locarno, ora sede della Società Elettrica Sopracenerina, 2024.png|Conference room of the former Government Palace in Locarno, now headquarters of the Società Elettrica Sopracenerina

File:Interno della torre del castello Visconteo (Locarno).png|Tower interior of the Visconti Castle in Locarno, Switzerland

File:Coppa cilindrica, cosiddetta “degli uccelli”. Età Imperiale, cultura romana (I-IV secolo d.C.).png|Cylindrical cup, so-called “of the birds”. Imperial Age, Roman culture (1st-4th century AD) Muralto, Villa Liverpool. Discovery 1936. Find from 20-50 AD preserved inside the Visconti castle.