Bellinzona

Sasso Corbaro, the smallest and highest of Bellinzona's three castles, perches 230 metres above the city. It has a precise construction date: 1479, built immediately after the Battle of Giornico (28 December 1478), where roughly 600 Swiss troops ambushed and routed a larger Milanese army by rolling boulders down a narrow icy valley. Alarmed Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza commissioned Florentine military engineer Benedetto Ferrini, who designed and built the castle in six months -- then died of plague shortly before its completion.

On 14 April 1500, seeking protection from France, Bellinzona joined the Swiss Confederation as a condominium under Uri, Schwyz, and Nidwalden. Each canton received one castle: Uri got Castelgrande (Castello di Uri), Schwyz got Montebello (Castello di Svitto), and Unterwalden got Sasso Corbaro (Castello di Unterwalden). All three castles, the Murata wall, and the town ramparts were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 30 November 2000. They are the only surviving example in the Alpine arc of medieval military architecture comprising multiple castles linked by a wall.

La Murata is the fortified defensive wall that once sealed off the entire Ticino valley from west to east, connected to Castelgrande. Built in the second half of the 14th century after the Visconti conquest of 1340, the wall allowed Milan to control and tax commercial traffic heading to the St. Gotthard Pass. It featured dual walls creating a covered passage approximately 4 metres high, stretching approximately 800 metres across the valley floor, which is barely one kilometre wide at Bellinzona.

On 30 September 1513, a gigantic rockslide from Pizzo Magno created a dam over 60 metres high that blocked the Blenio valley. On 20 May 1515, the dam catastrophically burst -- the Buzza di Biasca sent enormous flood waves through the Riviera to Bellinzona and Lake Maggiore. In Bellinzona, over 100 people died and approximately 400 buildings were destroyed. The Murata wall temporarily held back the water before bursting, causing even worse flooding. Total casualties: between 200 and 600 people.

The Collegiata dei Santi Pietro e Stefano on Piazza Collegiata was designed by Master Tomaso Rodari of Maroggia -- the same architect who created Como Cathedral. Built between 1515 and 1543 in Renaissance style, it features a magnificent twelve-segment rose window (rosone) measuring five metres in diameter. The apse altarpiece, a Crucifixion, is attributed to Simone Peterzano of Bergamo -- historically noted as the teacher of Caravaggio.

Rabadan is Bellinzona's carnival, one of the largest in Switzerland after Basel's Fasnacht. Officially founded in 1862, the name first appeared in 1874 and comes from the Milanese/Lombard dialect meaning 'noise' or 'racket.' It draws approximately 150,000 visitors over five days. On Giovedi Grasso (Fat Thursday), the mayor hands the symbolic key to Re Rabadan (King Rabadan), elected by the local carnival society. The Sunday Cortege features around fifty floats and Guggenmusik brass bands.

Two prominent towers define Castelgrande's skyline: the Torre Bianca (White Tower), 27 metres tall from the 13th century (ca. 1250-1350), and the Torre Nera (Black Tower), 28 metres tall from 1310. Castelgrande dominates Bellinzona from a rocky peak with archaeological evidence of habitation for over 6,000 years, from Neolithic settlements dating to 5500-5000 BC through Roman, medieval, and modern eras.

Swiss architect Aurelio Galfetti (1936-2021) directed Castelgrande's modern restoration from 1984 to 1991. His philosophy was 'Conservare = Trasformare' (Preserve = Transform). He carved a modern entrance into the hillside at Piazza del Sole: a wedge-shaped gap in rock leading to a concrete-lined rotunda, from which lifts transport visitors 40 metres up to the castle. The castle's archaeological museum covers 6,500 years of human presence on the hill.