Lugano

Lugano occupies the north shore of Lake Lugano, also called Lago Ceresio, between Lake Maggiore and Lake Como, framed to the south by Monte San Salvatore and to the east by Monte Brè. According to the Federal Statistical Office, its territory covers 75.98 square kilometres. The climate, continental but softened by the lake, is classed Cfa under the Köppen system: average temperatures reach 22.6°C in July against 3.8°C in January, with about 1,567 millimetres of annual precipitation.

Archaeological research attests discontinuous occupation of the site since the 6th or 7th century. In the Middle Ages, the city first fell under the strong influence of the bishops of Como, before Milan imposed its sovereignty while leaving it a degree of administrative autonomy. The mergers of 2004, 2008 and 2013, which notably attached Breganzona, Pregassona, Carona and Sonvico, made Lugano Switzerland's ninth-largest city by population and the largest city of Italian-speaking Switzerland, with an agglomeration of about 150,000 inhabitants.

The country's third financial centre, Lugano is home to the headquarters of the Napapijri brand and of Etihad Regional. Via Nassa, reputed to be the most expensive shopping street in Italian Switzerland and the fifth in Switzerland, lines up boutiques such as Prada, Versace, Bulgari and Brunello Cucinelli. The city hosted the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, and the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli holds a fresco of the Passion and Resurrection painted by Bernardino Luini, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, completed in 1529.

The Museum of Cultures holds the Brignoni collection, about 600 objects of art from Asia, Oceania and Africa and one of Europe's most important ethnographic collections, while the Hermann Hesse Museum gathers the writer's archives — he remained in Montagnola until his death. Founded in 1996, the Università della Svizzera italiana made Lugano a university seat. The ice hockey club HC Lugano, seven-time Swiss champion between 1986 and 2006, has played in the National League since 1983; the city also hosted the UCI Road World Championships in 1953 and 1996.

Why this place is remarkable

Lugano owes its identity to its lakeside position between Monte San Salvatore and Monte Brè, which the mergers of 2004, 2008 and 2013 turned into Switzerland's ninth-largest city and the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy. The country's third financial centre, it brings together a fresco by Bernardino Luini completed in 1529, the Brignoni ethnographic collection, and the memory of Hermann Hesse, who lived there until his death.

History and origin

Archaeology attests discontinuous occupation of the site since the 6th or 7th century. In the Middle Ages, Lugano first fell under the influence of the bishops of Como, a city that became a freely administered commune at the turn of the 12th century without losing its hold over Lugano; the powerful city of Milan then imposed its sovereignty, though Lugano kept a degree of administrative autonomy throughout the medieval period.