[edit]
Prehistory[edit]
The oldest archaeological finds in Ascona (at S. Materno and S. Michele) go back to the beginnings of the Late Bronze Age. During the expansion of the cemetery in 1952, a necropolis was discovered at S. Materno, where 21 cremation urns were discovered. The urns were either simply buried or covered with a stone slab box. They contained cremated bones and, in some cases, bronze grave goods. Of particular interest are the bronze brooches, which are among the oldest that have been found so far in Switzerland. They also provide important evidence for the relationship of this area to the cultures of the Italian Peninsula. The grave goods have similarities with those from the final phase of the so-called Canegrate culture (named after a large necropolis in Milan). However, the materials used are those of the late Bronze Age north of the Alps. This allowed the cemetery to be dated to the period between the 12th and 10th centuries BC and points to the fact that Ascona took part in trade over the Alps through the Val Mesolcina and over Lake Maggiore with the Po Valley.
Similar objects were found by exploratory excavations in the late 1960s on the castle hill of San Michele. Both fine ceramics and coarse pottery were discovered, which suggests that this area was settled during the Late Bronze Age, even if there is no evidence of the municipal structures. Remains of walls and clay from the Balladrum hill are the only Iron Age objects found in the municipality. However, the exact age is unknown. The only item that has been conclusively identified is a single flagon from the 6th to 5th century BC.
From the Roman Empire, a necropolis with 38 tombs at the foot of the Castle of S. Materno was discovered. The equipment found near the graves points to the period in the mid-1st or 2nd century AD. The necropolis was probably associated with a villa. In 1979–80, an excavation at the church of S. Sebastiano discovered 60 early medieval graves.
Medieval town[edit]
A fortified settlement is first mentioned in 1186, as Sconae (castrum quod dicitur sconae), in 1224 as burgus de schona. The etymology of the toponym is unknown, there are several suggestions from 19th-century scholarship, all of them uncertain:
from Latin scanum "alluvial sediment", from Latin ab abscondito, or from an uncertain early Romance asculà "pasture in uncultivated land". The German form of the name, Aschgunen, is recorded from the 16th century, when Locarno had come under the rule of the Old Swiss Confederacy. It is no longer in use.
In the later Middle Ages, Ascona, Ronco, and Castelletto formed a village cooperative together. In 1321 it was mentioned for the first time, and in 1369, it had its own statutes. The history of Ascona during the Middle Ages is closely linked with that of Locarno. The important role of Ascona is reflected in the designation plebis Locarni Asconaeque which it was given in 1369. It is believed that in the 6th century, the Castle of San Michele was the site of a curia (court) and the seat of a sculdascio (Lombardic for officer) of the county of Stazzona, who exercised control over the entire parish of Locarno. In 1004, the court rights were transferred from the Archbishop of Milan to the Bishop of Como. In 1189 this gave the castle of San Michele to the Duni, one of the families of the Capitanei di Locarno. Other noble families from Locarno (Da Carcano, Castelletto, Muralto) settled in Ascona. They were joined by the Griglioni family that fled the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines of Milan.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Duni enlarged their fortress (demolished in the 17th century) and the church of S. Sebastiano as well as having created a plaza around their residential home. The oldest fortification, probably, is the castle of San Materno. At its location, north of the village, there already seems to have been a Roman tower. The fort was occupied as early as the Early Middle Ages. In the 13th century, it was owned by the Orelli and Castelletto families. In the 17th century, only a part of the walls was still preserved. In the course of the 13th century, two new fortifications were built. The first was the Carcani Castle on the shore east of the Church of SS. Pietro e Paolo, and it was already demolished by the 2nd half of the 13th century. The second, was still further east, outside the inhabited area at that time. The Griglioni built a small castle to protect a port. Parts of this castle still exist and have been integrated into modern buildings.
A church is first mentioned in 1264 and was originally consecrated only as the Church of S. Peter. The Church of SS Peter and Paul is first mentioned as a parish church in 1330, and in 1332 as a collegiate church. However, no documents exist which show the separation from the mother church of San Vittore in Muralto and thus the existence of an early medieval parish. The Church of S. Maria della Misericordia was built in 1399–1442. It contains one of the most extensive late Gothic fresco cycles in Switzerland.
Early Modern Ascona[edit]
Collegio Papio grounds
In 1640-41, Ascona separated from Ronco and Castelletto. According to the statues adopted in the 14th century, Ascona was represented by three people in the Council of the parish of Locarno. Under the Swiss Confederation, it was represented with two members, alternating every two years with those of Ronco. In 1428, Filippo Maria Visconti gave the villages the market right, which was renewed by the Confederates after the conquest of Locarno in 1513.
In 1580, Bartolomeo Papio, who had become wealthy in Rome, donated 25,000 Scudi to Ascona for the construction of a seminary as long as the work could be completed within three years. In October 1584 the school was finished. After negotiations with Charles Borromeo, the Archbishop of Milan, and representatives of Pope Gregory XIII, it was decided to sell the originally planned Casa Papio and to build the Collegio Papio college next to the Church of S. Maria della Misericordia. This project ran from 1585 until 1592. In 1616, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, placed the school under the authority of the Congregation of the Oblate of Milan, which led the school until 1798.
The Church of SS Peter and Paul was enlarged in the 16th century, and in 1703, was elevated to have a provost over the church. This was followed by it being raised to have a dean in 1800. In 1617-37 the Church of Madonna della Fontana was built on the northern slopes of Monte Verità, which became a pilgrimage destination. The most remarkable profane building of this era is the Casa Serodine, a building of the 17th century, with a richly decorated facade.
Modern Ascona[edit]
Ascona in 1932
After various changes, the Collegio Papio seminary was secularized in 1852 and then served initially as a high school. It then became a girls' school and later the Istituto Elvetico. In 1879, it returned to its original name and purpose and was placed under the Bishop of Como. In 1885 it came under the authority of the bishop of Lugano. Under the bishop of Lugano, several religious orders administered the seminary, including the Salesians (1894–1910), the Assumptionists (1910–14), and finally the Benedictines (since 1924). In the 20th century, the building was rebuilt and expanded several times (1924–27, after a fire in 1960, 1975–76, and 1992).
In the second half of the 18th century, the Church of SS Peter and Paul was extensively rebuilt. In 1859, the façade and the south side were totally redone in a Gothic Revival style. A further renovation began in 1948 but was aborted after the 18th-century vaults collapsed.
In 1798 Ascona elected to join the Helvetic Republic, and was granted a certain degree of local self-government. French troops moved into the town but were driven out, and it was then occupied by Austrian units. When the canton of Ticino was founded in 1803, Ascona became a political municipality.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the local economy depended mostly on crops, livestock, and fisheries. A smaller, but important source of income was the emigration of builders, architects, and artists to Rome and Tuscany. The most famous Ascona artist families were the Serodine, Abbondio, Pancaldi, and Pisoni. In the 19th century, linen production and mills offered job opportunities to the locals. In the second half of the 19th century, a dynamite factory operated in Ascona, but it closed after repeated explosions in 1874.
Minigolf Ascona, opened in 1954, the oldest course worldwide following the norms of Paul Bongni
In the 20th century, tourism became a major part of the local economy. Since 1970 the number of second homes has increased substantially, and at the end of the 20th century, during the summer season, around 20,000 to 25,000 visitors came to Ascona each year. Closely connected with the rise of tourism was population growth in the 1920s. In 1925 an extensive redistribution of land ownership allowed non-locals to purchase land. By 1934, the number of landowners included not only 299 Ticinesi, but 88 other Swiss, 41 German, 35 Italian, and 31 foreign nationals. The settlement area has expanded since 1960. The expansion has proceeded more and more towards the north, so that as of 2023[update] Locarno and Ascona form a single agglomeration. Two bridges connect Ascona with the left bank of the Maggia river. The one at Solduno, which was built 1815–16, and rebuilt in 1887 after the flood of 1868, was totally replaced in 1996. The second bridge, further into the valley, was built in 1974–80. Since 1947, Ascona has also had an airport; however, it is likely to close in the near future.
In 1945 negotiations over World War II surrender plans took place between U.S. and Nazi German representatives in Ascona.
Monte Verità[edit]
Villa Semiramis on Monte Verità, today a part of the hotel and conference complex
"Monte Verità" ("Mount Truth") was so named at the beginning of the 20th century, when a "colony" was founded by proponents of primitive socialism and anarchy on a hill formerly known as "Monescia", just to the north-west of the town of Ascona.
The colony attracted a large number of artists, anarchists, and other famous people, including Hermann Hesse, Hans Habe, Carl Jung, Erich Maria Remarque, Hugo Ball, Else Lasker-Schüler, Stefan George, Isadora Duncan, Paul Klee, Rudolf Steiner, Mary Wigman, Gyula Háy, Max Picard, Ernst Toller, Henri van de Velde, Rudolf Laban, Frieda and Else von Richthofen, Otto Gross, Erich Mühsam, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, and Gustav Stresemann.
