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Capo San Martino

Lake LuganoLugano

Capo San Martino is a locality in the municipality of Lugano, Switzerland, situated on the eastern side of Monte San Salvatore, along the cantonal road that connects Lugano with Melide. As the name suggests, Capo San Martino ("Cape of Saint Martin") is a natural cliff overlooking Lake Lugano. Historically, the locality of Capo San Martino was also known as Forca di San Martino ("Saint Martin's Gallows"), because capital punishments by hanging were executed there. The last hanging took place in 1804.Until 1861, Capo San Martino was in Italian territory, as it belonged to Campione d'Italia. In 1863, Capo San Martino became a hamlet of Pazzallo, then still an independent municipality in the district of Lugano.During the 19th century, a lime furnace operated from Capo San Martino, along the lake shore. This furnace was just one among several others in Caslano, Melide, Castagnola, Pazzallo, Cimadera, and Melano, which exploited the abundant deposits of limestone of the Sottoceneri region for the production of lime.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Capo San Martino (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Capo San Martino
Riva Paradiso, Circolo di Lugano ovest

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Latitude Longitude
N 45.983055555556 ° E 8.9561111111111 °
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Riva Paradiso
6912 Circolo di Lugano ovest
Ticino, Switzerland
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Monte San Salvatore funicular
Monte San Salvatore funicular

The Monte San Salvatore funicular, or Funicolare Monte San Salvatore, is a funicular railway in the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The line links a lower station in the Lugano suburb of Paradiso with an upper station at the summit of the Monte San Salvatore. The top yields a 360° panorama with views of the city, Lake Lugano, Monte Generoso and the Italian enclave of Campione.The line was built in 1890, and originally used an Abt rack rail for braking. It was rebuilt in 1926, when the two-axle cars were replaced by four-axle cars capable of carrying 70 passengers each, and the Abt rail removed. The cars were again replaced in 1957. In 2001, the line was extensively modernised, with new engine, gearbox, brakes and control system, and the 1957-built cars were given a new modern style body. The line has an unusual configuration of two separate single-track sections, with passengers transferring between cars at an intermediate station in Pazzallo. Each section has a single car, but there is only one engine and machine room which is located at Pazzallo, and the two cars counterbalance each other. The two cars are similar in design, but are not identical, being adapted to the different gradients of the two sections.Just after leaving its lower terminal, the funicular crosses above Lugano-Paradiso railway station on a bridge. This station is some 350 metres (1,150 ft) walk to the south of the lower terminal. Urban bus routes 1 and 2 of the Trasporti Pubblici Luganesi (TPL) serve a stop some 150 metres (490 ft) to the north of the terminal at Paradiso Gerreta. The funicular is owned and operated by Funicolare Lugano-Paradiso-Monte San Salvatore SA. The Monte San Salvatore funicular is one of three operational funiculars within the Lugano area. The other two are the Monte Brè funicular, which ascends Monte Brè on the opposite side of the city, and the Lugano Città–Stazione funicular, which links the city centre with the railway station.

Canton of Lugano
Canton of Lugano

Lugano was the name of a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, with its capital at Lugano. The canton unified the former Landvogteien of Lugano, Mendrisio, Locarno and Valmaggia. As with the other cantons of the Helvetic Republic, the autonomy of Lugano was very limited, the republic having been founded by Napoleon in order to further centralise power in Switzerland. The canton was led by a Directory of five members, who appointed a "national préfet", the first of whom was Giacomo Buonvicini. The canton was riven with dispute between "patriots", supporting the Cisalpine Republic, and traditionalist "aristocrats". The politics of the central government — the seizure of church property, the introduction of direct taxation, mandatory military service, an amnesty favouring Cisalpine patriots and a law regarding municipalities that rejected the secular tradition of communal autonomy — as well as the military occupation by the French Revolutionary Armies, with its associated violence and requisitions, all combined to maintain a level of hostility to the new régime within the local population, which eventually rose up against the régime. In Lugano, during anti-French protests of 28 April and 29 April 1799, the printer Agnelli's was looted and the abbot Giuseppe Lodovico Maria Vanelli and other Cisalpine patriots were killed; the préfet Francesco Capra, who succeeded Buonvicini earlier that year, fled and power passed to a provisional government sympathetic to the Habsburgs. Similar protests erupted in Mendrisio and Locarno. The arrival of Austro-Russian troops led to further requisition and pillage, leading to further shortages amongst the local population. French occupation was restored in 1800, with further consequences for the Luganese. Commissioner Heinrich Zschokke re-established the authority of the Helvetic Republic on his arrival; a new préfet was appointed, Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Franzoni. After two abortive attempts to unite Lugano with Bellinzona in the first two years of the 19th century, popular discontent, combined with fiscal pressure and a disastrous economic situation, led to a revolt in Capriasca early in 1802, which led to the autumn pronunciamento of Pian Povrò, named for the location of a district general congress, between Massagno and Breganzona, which declared the independence of Lugano from the Helvetic client republic. With the Act of Mediation, the following year, political agitation was finally quelled, as were the struggles between unionists and federalists; merger with Bellinzona was at last completed, creating the Ticino, which endures to the present day.