Lugano & Lake Lugano

Lugano is the largest town in Ticino and lies with Mediterranean flair on the lake of the same name between the viewpoint mountains Monte Brè and Monte San Salvatore. Palm promenades, a lively old town and funiculars up the local mountains shape the scene. The lake reaches into Italy.

Highlights

• Mediterranean lakeside promenade and old town
• Local mountains Monte Brè and San Salvatore (funiculars)
• Lake Lugano reaching into Italy
• Parks and camellia blossom

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Practical info

Background & History

Lugano lies on the lake of the same name in Ticino and is regarded as the Mediterranean heart of Switzerland, a city in which the Italian language, southern temperament and Swiss order enter into a peculiar union. The sheltered position by the water, framed by the characteristic sugarloaf mountains of Monte Brè and San Salvatore, gives the place an exceptionally mild climate in which palms and magnolias thrive and which lured travellers from the north here to recuperate as early as the 19th century.

Geologically, Lake Lugano is tied to ancient fault lines along which, millions of years ago in the early phase of Alpine formation, the rock shifted and deep basins formed, which were later further shaped by glaciers; the famous Insubric Line, one of the most significant seams of the Alps, runs very close by. The city itself preserves precious art in its churches, above all a monumental Renaissance fresco in Santa Maria degli Angioli, which ranks among the most important works of Lombardy north of the Alps. Above the lake towers the nearby Monte Generoso, from whose summit a wide view opens out as far as the Po Plain. Thus Lugano unites a southern way of life, treasures of art history and a landscape rooted in deep geological time.