How Three Castles in Switzerland’s Italian Speaking Canton of Ticino Changed the Course of European History

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The Republic and Canton of Ticino

The Italian speaking Repubblica e Cantone Ticino, located in the far south of Switzerland, shares most of its borders with Italy. Perhaps a result of this geography and shared language, Ticino’s population share many of the same attitudes and attributes as their neighbors to the south. The pace of life is slower, the food is exceptional, and the people seem far more relaxed than just over the Alps in German speaking Switzerland.

On top of all that, the warmer temperatures of the lower elevations mean that, even in the middle of fall, it is regularly pleasant enough weather to sit outside on the Piazza and enjoy an Aperol as the sun sets (an activity in which the population seems to participate in-mass).

After over a year living in, and transiting through, high strung German speaking Switzerland (particularly its de facto capital of undue stress, Zurich Hauptbahnhof), we were ready for a break. Ticino with its Italian flair seemed like the perfect escape.

Much of the tourism in Ticino seems to revolve around its two major lake towns, the larger Lugano on its namesake Lake Lugano and smaller Locarno on the shores of Lake Maggiore. In search of even greater calm than either of these (incredibly stunning) towns could provide, we booked an Airbnb in the Canton’s far less trafficked interior.

While we got the peace and serenity we were looking for in spades (sans an exceptionally vocal donkey), we also, rather unknowingly, placed ourselves within minutes of one of the most consequential sites in all of Europe, Bellinzona.

This week I am excited to share our time in Bellinzona, wandering its fantastic alleys and piazzas, making hilarious gafs with our few words of Italian, and visiting its three, absolutely fantastic, UNESCO World Heritage listed castles. Were it not for this geographic bottle neck, and the imposing fortifications built to control it, the map of Europe could look exceptionally different today.

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Making Our Way to Ticino

From the Berner Oberland, where we live, there are a couple ways to get to Ticino by public transit. You can head up to Luzern or Zurich and hop on a fast train through the 57 km long Gottard Base Tunnel, the worlds largest train tunnel which cuts straight through the Alps, or you can take a bit slower, but far more scenic route which more directly cuts across Italy before linking back up with Switzerland just outside of Locarno. We opted for the latter.

Despite a required change at Domodossola, our entire 5-hour journey from the Berner Oberland through the Lötschberg Base Tunnel into the Valais, on through the Simplon Tunnel into Italy, and including the panorama train up the stunning Centovalli back to Locarno was all covered by Switzerland’s GA pass, and incidentally, the Swiss Travel Pass. Easily one of Switzerland’s most iconic train journeys, but not nearly as well known as the Bernina or Glacier Express Routes.

We’ll share all about the portion of the trip to charming Domodossola, one of our favorite get aways just over the border in Italy, in a future post. For now we will just focus on the highlight of the journey, the Centovalli Express from Domodossola to Locarno operated by the Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi SA, or unfortunately initialed, Fart.

Crossing the Toce River outside of Domodossola

The Fart on its way to Locarno

While it was a bit of a journey to find the correct platform for the FART at Domodossola (down a staircase at the end of one of the platforms and on through a narrow pedestrian tunnel to an underground platform) in time to catch the train, once we were settled, the rest of our trip was absolutely fantastic.

Out of Domodossola, the slow panorama train weaves its way up from the Val d’Ossola into the Valle Vigezzo alternating stunning vista after stunning vista on either side of the train. After passing a myriad of dry stacked stone farmhouses and picturesque vineyards on its way uphill, the train gains enough elevation to more gently contour the valley’s beautiful, forested slopes. On occasion, the line suddenly breaks out of the forest onto bridges crossing stunningly deep gorges and amazing waterfalls, offering spectacular views across the valley.

About half-way through the 2-hour journey between Domodossola and Locarno, the train passes through the more developed ski towns surrounding Santa Maria Maggiore and the narrow valley opens up, offering views high into the Italian Alps.

Nearing the border with Switzerland, the valley narrows once again, and the train (and adjacent road) are forced to contend with some exceptionally steep and fractured rock slopes. I am not sure I have ever seen as many overlapping rock fall protection structures as I have in this upper valley (albeit my parents would be quick to remind me that, as a child, I would hide under a blanket every time I saw a rock fall sign on the road, so this may have just limited my exposure).

Finally crossing the border back into Switzerland and the Centovalli, really just a continuation of the Italian Valle Vigezzo, the train works its way down form the mountains towards Locarno and Lake Maggiore. Just before rolling into the station at Locarno, the train passes over the incredible gneiss formations of the Maggia River, a final highlight from a spectacular journey.

A stone house on the climb out of Domodossola

Crossing the Maggia River outside of Locarno

Our First Impressions of Bellinzona

After a quick jaunt along the lakefront of Locarno (more on that in another post) we headed in the direction of Bellinzona to check into our Airbnb and get settled in. After unpacking, we briefly strolled around our base for the next few days, Claro, part of the municipality of Bellinzona since 2017.

Claro’s c. 3000 residents live in the Riviera Valley above the Ticino River just north of Bellinzona’s old town and directly across the valley from the impressive Valegion landslide complex. This landslide, active since at least the 17th Century, most recently reactivated in the early 2000’s initiating a series of successful mitigations that helped control a 300,000 m³ failure in 2012.

Walking the cobble stone streets of Claro

The large and active Benedictine Monastero di Santa Maria Assunta has stood sentinel on the hill above the town since the late 15th Century. While we didn’t have the time to head up the hill during our latest visit, the recommended trail as well as a small gondola both offer access to the monastery.

With most of Claro closed on a Sunday, we caught the next bus back into Bellinzona to collect groceries near the train station and grab a quick dinner. Whether it was just a bit of over confidence in our mediocre Italian or the long travel day, I don’t know, but we ended up with a comically large and delicious but completely different pizza than we thought we ordered… so these things go.

Looking up the road in Claro at the Monastero di Santa Maria Assunta

Our massive pizza in Bellinzona

Despite drawing some strange looks from passerby’s as we picked away at the pizza on a bench on the edge of the piazza, we thoroughly enjoyed or fist views of Bellinzona. The Castelgrande, a massive outcrop of gneiss capped by a fairytale medieval castle, towers above and the medieval town walls pass straight along the edge of the square. Up on the hill above, two more castles, Montebello and Sasso, stand guard making for a setting like almost no other in Switzerland. The perfect start to our Ticino adventure.

Looking across the Piazza at Castel Grande in Bellinzona

The Bellinzona Old Town

After a restful night back in Claro, we headed out early to explore Bellinzona in earnest. From the train station, we headed back to the piazza and the site of our feast the night before to begin wandering the streets and internal courtyards of the old town.

With a population around 16,000, Bellinzona, barely manages to be Ticino’s second largest city, just eeking out Locarno by a couple thousand residents. The town center is a bit less urban and polished than Lugano or Locarno and doesn’t have the lakefront views, but its exceptional architecture and lived in feel easily make up for it.

After passing through the small piazza in front of the Chiesa Collegiata dei SS. Pietro e Stefano, or Collegiate Church, we made our way into the internal courtyard of the Palazzo Civico Municipio Bellinzona, or town hall palace. Built in the 1920’s on the site of a previous dilapidating 14th Century town hall, this masterpiece of medieval-revival architecture blends seamlessly into the town landscape from the outside while its internal courtyard, stacked with arches overflowing with flowers and art feel like something straight out of the Mediterranean.

Views from within the Bellinzona Old Town

The internal courtyard of the Palazzo Civico in Bellinzona

From the Palazzo Civico, we passed out and around a portion of the old town wall before swinging back into the town to climb through the vineyards up the back side of Castelgrande.

A portion of the Bellinzona town wall

Into the Castel Grande

The Nufenen, St. Gotthard, Lukmanier and San Bernardino Alpine Pass routes, some of the most critical junctures in all of Europe, converge in the valley near Bellinzona. As a result, Bellinzona has occupied an important place of trade since the early Neolithic some 7000 years before Christ.

The convergence of the four trade routes also represented a geographic bottleneck that was first acted upon by the Romans in the first century BC with the construction of the first known small fort at Castelgrande. Expansions through the 4th and 5th Centuries AD helped a vastly outnumbered Roman force repel nearly 900 Alemannic invaders in 475.

The fall of the Roman empire in the 6th Century saw Castelgrande pass to the hands of the Lombards, a Germanic people who moved south to control most of the Italian peninsula in the Roman power vacuum. For the next 200 years, the Lombards strengthened and controlled Bellinzona repelling Frankish attacks from the north until they were finally conquered in 774 by Charlemagne and integrated into the Frankish Empire.

Frankish control saw the modern look of Castelgrande start to take shape, with a fortified citadel on the hill, but the modern constructions primarily date to the later Medieval period.

After the death of Charlemagne in 814 AD, the Frankish Empire was divided (which eventually resulted in the creation of the Holy Roman Empire) and control over Bellinzona became increasingly chaotic. Around the 10th Century, Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, took control of Bellinzona and passed it on to his supporter, the Bishop of Como.

During the 13th Century, tensions between imperial Como and pro-papal Milan saw control of Castelgrande pass back and forth between Como and Milan several times before, finally coming under definitive control of the Duchy of Milan in the 14th Century. Over the ensuing century and a half, Milan greatly expanded the town’s fortifications and constructed the 800 meter long Murata, a wall connecting Castelgrande all the way to the far side of the Ticino River valley.

The Murata which once crossed the entire Ticino River Valley

Entering the castle walls, you find yourself in a large open courtyard within the keep. In the 12th Century, this courtyard would have been filled with buildings but most were removed during the Milanese period. The remaining structures from the Middle Ages include the 14th Century Torre Nera or Black Tower, the 13th Century Torre Bianca or white tower (palace of the Bishop of Como), and the south wing built during the 13th and 15th Centuries where you can find tickets to the site and the castle’s two small museums (not really that exciting at present, though it sounds like they may be in line for renovations).

The towers of Bellinzona castle

The real highlight of Castelgrande is the myriad of defensive towers and walls which you have nearly free reign to climb and explore with admission to the Castle. Portions of the Murata were destroyed during a massive flood in the 16th Century, but you can still walk over and through the massive structure thanks to massive preservation efforts undertaken at all of Bellinzona’s castles throughout the 1980’s and 90’s.

Exploring the Castel Grande

Castel Montebello

Around the end of the 13th Century the Rusca family from Como built a new residential castle, Montebello, on the hill 90 meters above Bellinzona. Despite a long and successful siege in 1340, Milan let the Ruscas keep their castle and its strategic position went on to form a corner stone of the Bellinzona defenses.

In the 15th Century, expansions of Bellinzona’s fortifications in response to growing threats from the north saw the construction of a moat and draw bridge at Montobello as well as a new defensive wall connecting Montebello with Castelgrande effectively encircling the village.

After exploring the Murata and Castel Grande and a picnic lunch on the walls, we took the modern elevator down from Castelgrande back to the piazza and wove our way past the Collegiate Church to a path squiggling up the hill to Castel Montebelo.

Surprisingly, when we arrived, Montebello was nearly devoid of visitors, quite the contrast to Castelgrande which was fairly busy by the time we left. As we discovered later, this is fairly normal and Montebello is actually the least visited of the three castles at Bellinzona. I am not exactly sure why that is, if you don’t want to walk, there is a quick bus up the hill that drops you off right outside the castle and, like Castelgrande, most of the walls and fortifications of Montebello are open to explore. The castle is smaller than Castelgrande but its towers and crenulations look like something out of a fairytale.

Looking out over Bellinzona and Castel Grande from the path to Montebello

The drawbridge of Castel Montebello

It was great fun walking along the battlements looking out over Bellinzona and the surrounding valley and we spent the better part of an hour exploring the grounds and its recently renovated (and generally ok) archaeology museum.

Castel Montebello from its defensive walls

Castel Sasso Corbaro and the Swiss

To save our legs, we opted for the bus to take us most of the way up to the smallest and youngest of Bellinzona’s Castles, Sasso Corbaro. The castle is built on top of a massive rock, so, despite the bus, the only way to get to the top it is to hike up the hill a bit further.

The stunning views over the valley from the castle’s wall are certainly worth the extra effort and speak to the importance of the castle as a lookout. Less is known about the origins of Sasso Corbaro but the current structure was hastily constructed by the Milanese around an existing watch tower starting in 1479 in response to an increasingly growing threat. The Swiss.

The expansive views from the walls of Sasso Corbado

Earlier in 1419, troops from Uri and Obwalden had expanded into the Ticino River Valley taking Bellinzona for three years before Milan was able to drive them from the city (and later deliver a crushing blow at the Battle of Arbedo in 1422 that would, for a time limit their expansionist tendencies).

Despite a 1426 peace treaty, Uri once again invaded Bellinzona in 1439 and 1478 decisively taking over territory to the north after a vastly outnumbered Swiss force of 600 defeated 10,000 Milanese Troops at the Battle of Giornico.

When the French swept though Milan in 1499, they assumed control of Bellinzona and, fearing a Swiss invasion, stationed 1000 troops in Castelgrande. What the French were not expecting was a revolt from within the walls. In an armed revolt in 1500, the citizens of Bellinzona drove out their French occupiers.

Without the support of Milan and fearing the repercussions of their actions, Bellinzona gave themselves over to their former enemies, the Swiss Confederacy. The arrangement lasted over 300 years with Swiss troops occupying the castles at Bellinzona until the formation and fall of the Helvetic Republic by which point the castles and walls were in a sorry state of disrepair.

In 1803, Bellinzona became a part of the newly formed Canton of Ticino and some efforts were made to fortify the town in response to growing instability in the surrounding countries but real renovations did not come about until the 20th Century.

Despite the hoardes of school children, the temporary exhibit inside Castel Sasso Corbado, ‘We are no longer in the Middle Ages. From castles to the Fortress’ was, by far, the most comprehensive of the castle museums in Bellinzona. Unfortunately, it will only be available until November 2024. Hopefully the updates to the museum at Castel Grande will be able to provide a similar level of detail.

The inner courtyard of Sasso Corbaro

We spent nearly the entire day exploring the castles at Bellinzona and can’t recommend them enough. The views are spectacular, and the structures are incredibly interesting to explore.

If you are thinking about visiting, you don’t have to do all three castles to get the feel. Castel Grande is certainly the easiest to access and, if you only have time for one, that is where I would spend my time.

Just a heads up that, in the winter, only Castel Grande and the Murata are open to the public. If you want to visit Montebello and Sasso Cordoba, you will have to plan accordingly.

We hope you enjoyed hearing about our visit to Bellinzona. Sometime soon, we will share our visit to Locarno and Ascona, probably two of my favorite towns in all of Switzerland, but until then, you can check out the other posts in our One Year: 26 Canton project! Stay tuned for additional articles on our Swiss travels every week!

Until next time, gute Reise, and feel free to leave a comment on one of our social media platforms!