Lugano travel guide

Top 10 sights in Lugano

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Luca Mascaro · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Giubiasco

   A village at the mouth of the Magadino plain where the Alpine passes release their traffic onto the lake. One of the largest Iron Age cemeteries in the Alps was excavated here — several hundred graves whose grave goods show Celtic, Etruscan and Roman trade meeting in one valley.

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2. 

   2© WPestana · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Camorino

   A village at the entrance to the Magadino plain below Bellinzona, where the road down from the passes finally levels out. Vineyards and chestnut woods run up the slope behind it, and the motorway now takes the traffic the old road carried.

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3. 

   3© Cristian Bianchi · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Cadro

   A quarter of Lugano on the hillside northeast of the city, with stone houses and terraced fields still legible above the roofs. The path up Monte Bré starts here, and the Swissminiatur model park is a few minutes below.

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4. 

   4© Ticino2 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Gudo

   A village on the right bank of the Ticino in the plain, close to the Bolle di Magadino — the marsh where the river enters Lake Maggiore, protected as a wetland and one of the best bird sites in Switzerland.

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5. 

   5© Ticino2 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Monte Carasso

   A village west of Bellinzona that became a case study in modern architecture: from 1979 Luigi Snozzi replanned it building by building over thirty years, converting the convent into a school and setting rules rather than a masterplan. Architects still come to walk round it.

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6. 

   6© WPestana · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Sementina

   A village on the left bank of the Ticino west of Bellinzona, where the plain meets the mountain and the vineyards climb the slope in terraces. The path up to the Curzútt hamlets and the Tibetan footbridge starts nearby.

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7. 

   7© Joil84 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Sonvico

   A quarter of Lugano since 2013 and an independent commune before that, on a shelf above the Cassarate valley. Its medieval centre is a tight knot of lanes on the plan of an old fortified village.

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8. 

   8© Dorilys · CC BY 2.0

   Valcolla

   A quarter of Lugano in the Colla valley northeast of the city, made up of several mountain hamlets that were combined into one commune. It is a long climb up from the lake and almost empty in winter.

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9. 

   9© Dorilys · CC BY 2.0

   Cimadera

   A mountain hamlet above the Colla valley and one of the highest settlements in the Lugano district, its stone-roofed houses packed onto a shoulder of the hill. The lake is visible far below and the road up is a series of hairpins.

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10. 

    10© Berger at German Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Ligornetto

    A village in the Mendrisio district, and the birthplace of Vincenzo Vela, the nineteenth-century sculptor whose realist figures broke with the neoclassical style. His house and studio are a national museum, and the Italian border is a walk away.

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1. 

   1© Emibuzz · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Villa Balbianello

   A villa on a wooded point of Lake Como, ending in an open loggia over the water. Guido Monzino, who led the first Italian ascent of Everest, filled it with his expedition collections and left it to the national trust; Star Wars and Casino Royale were both shot here.

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2. 

   2© Original uploader was Peter Berger at de.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Montagnola

   A village on the hills above Lake Lugano where Hermann Hesse lived for forty-three years and wrote Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game. His house is now a museum, and he is buried in the cemetery at Gentilino below.

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3. 

   3© Nitrato · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Medeglia

   A mountain village on the eastern slope of the Monte Ceneri pass, which divides the Bellinzona valleys from Lugano. The old mule track between the two ran through it, and the village survives largely because the modern road did not.

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4. 

   4© Ottantafame · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Sacro Monte di Ossuccio

   One of the nine Sacri Monti of Lombardy and Piedmont in northern Italy, inscribed as World Heritage in 2003. It stands on a rocky hill two hundred metres above the western shore of Lake Como, surrounded by olive groves and woodland.

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5. 

   5© Hadi · CC BY-SA 2.5

   Indemini

   A stone village at about nine hundred metres above Lake Maggiore, hard against the Italian border, whose houses stand joined in one mass against the winter. Its permanent population is in single figures and its old form is completely intact.

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6. 

   6© Emanuela Meme Giudic… · CC BY 3.0

   Cathedral of Saint Lawrence

   The cathedral of Lugano, medieval in origin and rebuilt in the fifteenth century, whose Renaissance front of 1517 was carved by masons from the lakes who worked all over Europe. It stands on the slope above the station, so the terrace looks down on the whole town.

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7. 

   7

   Castelli di Cannero

   Three rocky islets in Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, off Cannero Riviera. Two of them carry the ruins of old fortifications, which is why they are called castles; they were held by a band of brothers who raided the lake until the Visconti took them in 1414.

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   8

   Northern Frontier

   A line of defences built by Italy along its northern border with Switzerland between 1899 and 1918. Its proper name is the Frontiera Nord, and it was intended to protect the industrial centres of the Po valley from an invasion that violated Swiss neutrality.

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9. 

   9© Hadi · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Gentilino

   A village in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland, near Lake Lugano and the town of Lugano. Its church of Sant'Abbondio goes back to the eleventh century and is listed as a national cultural property; Hermann Hesse is buried in its graveyard.

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10. 

    10© Adrian Michael · CC BY 3.0

    Bruzella

    A village in the Muggio valley, the narrowest and least developed of Ticino's valleys. A restored watermill below it grinds maize again, and a marked path links the old mills and stone bridges along the stream.

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