Locarno
Your child becomes the hero of a story set right here in Locarno — at the city's real landmarks, in the familiar streets, in front of the buildings they know from everyday life.
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Or become part of the history of Locarno
Below you find the historical tales of Locarno — from old legends to famous local events. Create a free account, pick one as your starting point, your child takes a role inside it.
Historical tales from Locarno
Real stories from the past of Locarno — pick one and your child takes a role
The vision on the rock
A child climbing to Madonna del Sasso on a hot August evening meets the ghost of Fra Bartolomeo, who needs help finding the exact spot where the Madonna appeared in 1480. Together they search the rocky outcrop before the midnight bells ring, discovering the layers of faith and history built into the sacred mountain above the lake.
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On the evening of 15 August 1480, the Franciscan friar Fra Bartolomeo Piatti d'Ivrea reportedly saw a vision of the Madonna on a rocky outcrop above Locarno. In 1487, he founded the Santuario della Madonna del Sasso at the site, in the municipality of Orselina. The church was enlarged in 1616 and is today a Sacro Monte complex with notable artworks including the Flight into Egypt altarpiece by Bramantino. The Funicolare Locarno-Madonna del Sasso opened on 1 March 1906 and carried over 116,000 passengers in its first year.
The leopard of Piazza Grande
During the film festival, the golden leopard statue on the Pardo d'Oro trophy winks at a child. Together they step into the giant screen on Piazza Grande and must escape through scenes from famous films projected there since 1946, racing through decades of cinema magic before the credits roll and the lights come up.
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The Locarno Film Festival, founded in August 1946, is one of the world's oldest film festivals. In 1971, it introduced open-air screenings on the Piazza Grande, seating up to 8,000 spectators before a giant screen — one of the world's most atmospheric cinema experiences. The top prize, the Pardo d'Oro (Golden Leopard), was named in 1968. The piazza measures approximately 190 by 60 metres, framed by Lombard-style arcades extending over 700 metres.
The peace treaty's lost page
A child exploring the Palazzo del Pretorio discovers a hidden room where the 1925 delegates' ghosts are still arguing. A missing page of the treaty must be found across Locarno's historic hotels before the Spirit of Locarno fades forever — a race through diplomatic history in a city that once held the world's hope for peace.
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From 5 to 16 October 1925, delegates from seven nations gathered in Locarno to negotiate post-World War I peace agreements. The primary venue was the Palazzo del Pretorio. The main agreement, the Rhineland Pact, was signed by Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy. Key signatories Gustav Stresemann and Aristide Briand received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. The agreements ushered in the 'Spirit of Locarno' — a period of optimism. The pact was destroyed on 7 March 1936 when Nazi troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland.
The Baroness's island garden
On the Brissago Islands, a child finds Baroness Antoinette de Saint-Leger's secret diary. Each pressed flower in its pages opens a portal to the plant's homeland — from the Amazon to Japan — and the child must return before the last ferry departs, carrying back the knowledge of how one woman's vision turned two tiny islands into a garden of the world.
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The Isole di Brissago (Brissago Islands) are two small islands in Lake Maggiore home to Switzerland's only island botanical garden. In 1885, the Russian-born Baroness Antoinette de Saint-Leger purchased the islands and created a subtropical garden, hosting painters like Giovanni Segantini and composer Ruggero Leoncavallo. In 1927, Max Emden bought the islands and built a palazzo. The Canton of Ticino acquired the property; the Parco Botanico opened on 2 April 1950, displaying approximately 2,000 plant species from five continents.
The hundred valleys express
A child boards the Centovalli train and discovers that each of the hundred valleys holds a sleeping giant. When the original 1923 locomotive whistle sounds, one giant wakes, and the child must lull it back to sleep before the train reaches Domodossola — crossing 83 bridges and 31 tunnels in a race through one of Switzerland's most spectacular rail journeys.
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The Ferrovia Vigezzina-Centovalli connects Locarno to Domodossola, Italy — a 52-kilometre metre-gauge line crossing 83 bridges and passing through 31 tunnels. The name 'Centovalli' (hundred valleys) refers to the countless side valleys visible along the route. The line opened on 25 November 1923 with an electric railcar built by Carminati & Toselli of Milan. It was championed by Locarno mayor Francesco Balli and delayed by a French bank collapse and World War I.
The exiles of 1555
A child in Locarno's old town finds a hidden letter from a Protestant child who was forced to leave in 1555. Following the letter's clues across the city and over the Alps, the child retraces the exile route to Zurich and delivers the message 470 years late — a story about faith, courage, and what it means to leave home forever.
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In the 1530s, Protestant ideas spread in Locarno through Giovanni Beccaria. Out of a population of roughly 4,000, some 211 people declared themselves Protestant. After intense pressure, on 3 March 1555, approximately 100 Locarnesi departed for Zurich, arriving in mid-May. The reformer Heinrich Bullinger welcomed them and arranged Italian-language worship at Zurich's Peterskirche. The exiled families — including the Duno, Muralto, and Orelli — eventually flourished in Zurich; the Orelli family later founded the Orell Fussli publishing house.
The summit between two worlds
On Cimetta, a child steps onto the geological observatory and falls through the crack between the European and African tectonic plates into an underground world where the mountains are still being born. Deep beneath the surface, they witness the slow, powerful forces that created the Alps and must find their way back up before the plates shift again.
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From Cardada (1,340 m), reached by a cable car designed by Ticinese architect Mario Botta in 2000, and the chairlift to Cimetta (1,670 m), one can see both the lowest point in Switzerland — the Lago Maggiore delta at 193 m — and the highest — Dufourspitze at 4,634 m. The Geological Observatory at Cimetta, designed by landscape architect Paolo Burgi, explains the collision of the European and African continental plates, whose boundary runs through this region.
The vegetarians of Monte Verità
A child visiting Ascona stumbles into 1900 and joins the barefoot colony on the Hill of Truth. To return home, the child must convince the eccentric idealists to let go of a magical sundial that has stopped time on their mountain — learning that the search for a perfect world sometimes means accepting the imperfect one you already have.
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In autumn 1900, five idealists — Henri Oedenkoven, pianist Ida Hofmann, and the brothers Karl and Gusto Graser along with Lotte Hattemer — purchased land above Ascona and renamed it Monte Verità (Mount Truth). They founded a cooperative colony based on vegetarianism, nudism, theosophy, and sun worship. Over the decades, visitors included Hermann Hesse, D.H. Lawrence, Isadora Duncan, Rudolf von Laban, Hans Arp, and Hugo Ball. The poet Erich Mühsam called Ascona 'la Repubblica dei senza patria' (the Republic of the Homeless). Since 1981, Casa Anatta serves as the History Museum.
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