Discovering Zürich And Switzerland

On a beautiful and hot June day 26 ZIWA members took the train from Zürich to the capital city of the canton Tessin, Bellinzona. At the station we were met by our guide, a charming young woman of Scottish descent who married a Swiss and has been living in Bellinzona for the last 17 years, Susan Ghisletta.


Bellinzona is formidably and strategically located at the foot of the Gotthard Pass which affords access to the north, the Nufenen Pass which gives passage to the Wallis, the Lukmaniar Pass that leads to Chur and via the Oberalp Pass to Andermatt the San Bernardino Pass to the East which leads to Chur, as well as the route south to Italy. We were told that at one time it was possible to travel from Bellinzona to Venice by a water route.




It is therefore understandable that this location has been fought over since the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus in the first century BC. It was during his reign that the first fort was built on the massive gneiss outcropping known as Castel Grande. The three castles, ( Castel Grande Castle Montebello built end of 13th century and Sasso Corbaro built 1479) which were granted Unesco World Heritage Status in 2000 as they stand today are fabulous structures surrounded by steep mountains, fertile valleys and the river Ticino that winds its way down to lago Maggiore and ultimately the river Po give Bellinzona a fairy tale feeling.



As one leaves the railway station the imposing granite sculpture of Elvezia in cammino created by Reno Rossi in 1943 points the way into town. We saunter slowly along the cobblestone road to the town centre learning things along the way. The pride of the town fathers if not necessarily of the citizens of Bellinzona seems to be the grand new post office built by the same architect, Aurelio Galfetti who carried out the latest restorations on Castel Grande between 1984 -91.




Piazza del sole at the foot of the castle is a large square that seems to be used for outdoor concerts and is of course the location for the Saturday market. On our tour we passed the opera house, which apparently looks like a mini La Scala inside. We passed a monument to the fallen soldiers of WW1 created by Apollonio Paolo. The Castel Grande, which is very impressively perched at the top of this 50-meter vertical rock wall, is rendered even more daunting by the fact that the rock face is kept totally devoid of plant growth. This is meant to give the castle the aspect of a sculpture on a pedestal. Wow, how cool is that and indeed successful. The impressive and beautiful castle walls called Murata used to reach right across the valley but the portion that was destroyed by a flood in 1515 has never been restored. Two of the castle's noteworthy features seem to be the black and the white tower. Now Mr. Galfetti the architect of the latest restorations felt that he also wanted to build a tower so he built an elevator inside the rock wall that takes visitors up to the castle. The top of the shaft in the anteroom to the elevator is open to the sky and so we have the inverted tower.


Bellinzona has many interesting facades on buildings, lovely wrought iron balconies and one building has a facade totally ornamented with terra cotta features. The city hall is a wonderful building on Piazza Nosetta. There has always been a walnut tree in the Piazza hence its name. The City Hall has an inner courtyard. Geraniums adorn the balconies that overlook the courtyard a thought provoking bronze sculpture called L' Ave Maria by Antonio Chiattone graces the entrance and on the walls are paintings depicting life and scenery of Bellinzona in the19th century. The Visconti family crest of a serpent at times with a baby in his jaws at times without the baby is ever present and the serpent is part of the Bellinzona crest.


After a visit to the baroque church of San Pietro and Santo Stefano we went for lunch Francesca had arranged a beautiful lunch of salad, Piccata Ticinese and Risotto for us. At our table we accompanied that with some local wine, grappa, limoncetto and the very elusive Nosetta liqueur made from the walnuts of that wonderful walnut tree. Bellinzona seems to have a relaxed lifestyle. I was quite surprised at the flair with which merchandise is presented in the shop windows. After all this entire city has a population of only 18 000 inhabitants.

I was also impressed with the service of the SBB. I boarded the train in Arth-Goldau and the stationmaster looked up the location of the ZIWA group on the train for me. Without his help I would have travelled at the other end of the quite long train.

Interesting web sites:
www.bellinzonaunesco.ch/castelliunesco/en/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellinzona
www.bellinzonaturismo.ch

pictures by R.Loeber, J.Newton
report by Trudi Macdonald

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