What to do and see in Lake Maggiore, Swiss Alps: The Best Specialty Museums

Reviewed By saronic - Zurich, Switzerland

At the western edge of Locarno's old town, well signposted from the Piazza Grande, is the Castello, the seat of local power since - probably - the 9th century. It is called after the powerful family Visconti from Milan, who controlled great parts of northern Italy and the southern Ticino in the 14th and 15th centuries. In Locarno they had placed a local 'Podestá' as their representative. It all came to an end, when in 1503 troops from the Swiss confederacy crossed the Alps and conquered Locarno and all the other parts from today's Ticino. The Castello now became the seat of the Swiss 'Landvogt' (bailiff) until the times of Napoleon and the creation of the canton of Ticino. The now cantonal administrative center was turned into the 'Museo civico e archaeologico' in 1921, when also extensive restorations in Renaissance-style began. Besides the building itself a main attraction are the finds from the Bronze Age till the Roman days, all objects found in and around Locarno. Most remarkable is the rich collection of Roman glass. Another exhibition deals with the Reformation in Locarno during the 16th century, which ended with the expulsion in 1555 of all the one's, who did not want to return to the old Catholic faith. Many, also several members of the local nobility, chose to emigrate to the reformed town of Zurich. A last exposition deals with the 'Locarno Treaties' from 1925, when head of states and foreign ministers from 7 European countries met here and discussed the reorganization of Europe after WW I. The main theme was the guarantee of the borders between France, Belgium and Germany. The occupied Rhineland became a demilitarized zone and Germany a member of the League of Nations. There was hope for lasting peace and the foreign ministers of France and Germany won the Nobel Price for Peace. The conference took place at the town's courthouse, the Palazzo del Pretorio, located at the Via delle Palme, which became the Via della Pace after the conference. The so-called 'Spirit of Locarno', once full of hope, came to an end in 1936, when the Nazi's under Hitler had the Rhineland occupied.