Ticino

The church of San Bernardo was built in the 16th century, although its current construction dates to the 17th century and the articulation of the façade with pilasters and gables dates from the 18th century.
Inside, the perimeter cornice is supported by Ionic columns. In the choir, frescoes framed in stucco work depicting the Madonna with St. Bernard – the patron saint – along with St. Rocco among the lepers and an Annunciation.

This church dates back to the end of the 15th century and it is first mentioned in records of 1480. The interior is divided by a huge transverse wall in the tradition of the Franciscan Order and is decorated with some magnificent frescoes. On the dividing wall there is a Renaissance fresco of the Crucifixion surrounded by fifteen scenes depicting the life of Christ. Unfortunately the painter is unknown, but it is most probably the work of an artist from Lombardy dating from between 1495 and 1505.

The Collegiate Church of St. Victor the Moor, to the north-east of the railway station, is, along with the church of St. Nicholas of Giornico, one of the most important Romanesque churches in Canton Ticino. It was the parish church until 1818. It is a flat basilica with three naves ending in half-circle apses, with a crypt beneath the chapel and a bell tower to the Southeast.

The most striking of all Locarno’s sights is the Franciscan Santuario della Madonna del Sasso church, an impressive ochre vision floating above the town on a wooded crag (sasso means rock) and consecrated in 1487 on the spot where, seven years earlier, the Virgin had appeared to Brother Bartolomeo da Ivrea from the San Francesco monastery in the town.

The church, built in a Renaissance-Baroque style, was built in many phases. During the first phase, between 1470 and 1478, a construction was erected with a nave and two side aisles in a Romanesque style, containing six characteristic pillars in terracotta. In 1581, a lateral chapel dedicated to San Carlo was built. Ten year later, in front of this structure, the chapel of the Crucifixion was built. Between 1750 and 1758, the altar niche and two vestries were added.

The church, which was originally part of a Franciscan monastery, is home to Switzerland’s most famous Renaissance fresco. It covers the whole wall of the nave. The “Passion and Crucifixion of Christ” is defined by great expressiveness and vividness of the individual scenes. The church is located on Piazza Bernardino Luini, at the end of Via Nassa, the city’s elegant shopping boulevard.

The chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli is 1567 meters above sea level, near Alpe Foppa, and just two steps from the cable car stop. The chapel looks over the whole plain of Magadino, as far as the entrance to the Mesolcina, Lugano and valleys, and as far as the imposing peaks of the Alps. It was designed by the architect Mario Botta at the request of Egidio Cattaneo, and was built between 1992 and 1994. The interior was decorated by Enzo Cucchi and the completed work was consecrated on September 1st, 1996.

The Cathedral of Lugano is a Roman Catholic church in Lugano, founded in the High Middle Ages but rebuilt in the late 15th century, with the façade being completed in 1517. The original Romanesque building was oriented in the opposite manner to the way it is at present, as is shown by the remains of the apse discovered under the current parvise. In the 15th century the church was expanded and the entrance moved to its present position, while the open roof was covered by a groin vaulted ceiling.

The church of San Giovanni Battista is in the heart of Mogno. Built between 1992 and 1996, it was designed by Mario Botta and rises on the remains of the original fifteenth century church, destroyed by an avalanche. The current building stands out among the traditional houses of the village because of its cylindrical shape, cut diagonally, as well as for the decorative use of stone. The force conveyed by the walls of the church is nicely balanced by the lightness of the glass cover.