Lugano

Lugano lies in a sheltered bay of the lake that bears its name, amid the foothills south of the Alps. Recorded as a market town in 984, it stood between the competing spheres of Como and Milan. The lake and the mountain roads connected it with neighbouring valleys and with the routes leading north.

By 1405–06 the town and surrounding parishes, including Agno and Capriasca, had formed a community independent of Como. Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, conquered the district in 1416, and its liberties were recorded in statutes the following year. Lugano became part of the Swiss Confederation in 1513. After the creation of the canton of Ticino in 1803, new roads were built linking it directly with Bellinzona, Ponte Tresa and Chiasso.