Istituto Leonardo da Vinci (Switzerland)

Loreto is a quarter of the city of Lugano, in the Swiss canton of Ticino. It forms the part of the city which surrounds the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto to the south of the city center, and includes the Lake Lugano waterfront south of the city centre but north of Paradiso. In 2011, it had a population of 3,221.

The Lugano degli Angioli funicular (Italian: Funicolare Lugano degli Angioli) was a funicular railway and inclined lift in the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino. It linked a lower terminus near the lakeside and the church of Santa Maria degli Angioli with an upper terminus adjacent to the Hotel Bristol. The upper station was on the third floor of a tower, linked with a footbridge to the hotel. The line had a single track and single car, which was balanced by a vertically operating counterweight in the tower.When in operation, the line was 142 metres (466 ft) in length and climbed a vertical distance of 53 metres (174 ft), with a maximum gradient of 44% and an average gradient of 38.7%. It was of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge. The single car had 4 compartments and a maximum capacity of 26 passengers.The line opened in 1913. In 1973 it was gifted by its owner to the City of Lugano. The Hotel Bristol closed in 1981, and the funicular followed in 1986. The line remains in existence, in an abandoned state. In 2012 the line was listed as a cultural property of regional significance. In April 2018 the Lugano city authorities announced a competition, with a CHF36,000 prize, for the best idea for a future for the funicular. In September of the same year, the same authorities requested a loan of CHF325,000 for a study into the future of the funicular and how it could form part of a wider plan for improved access to the lake. It is estimated that restoration as a static monument would cost CHF2.6 million, and a return to operation would cost CHF5.5 million.

The Swiss–Italian Art Museum (Italian: Museo d'arte della Svizzera italiana), commonly known as MASI Lugano, MASILugano or MASI, is an art museum predominantly featuring 20th-century and contemporary art in Lugano, Switzerland. Since December 2019, the museum has two locations, one in the Lugano Arte e Cultura (LAC) art center, and one in the Palazzo Reali.

Lugano Arte e Cultura (LAC) is a polyfunctional cultural centre dedicated to music, visual and performance arts in Lugano, Switzerland. It houses the Museo d'Arte della Svizzera Italiana (MASI) and hosts events such as "LuganoInScena" and "LuganoMusica". The Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana has its base at the LAC.

Besso is a quarter of the city of Lugano, in the Swiss canton of Ticino. It forms the part of the city which is uphill of Lugano railway station, and is separated from the city centre by that station and its rail approaches. Besso was developed as a residential area in the late nineteenth century, driven by the opening of the railway in 1882. By 2011, it had a population of 4,993.Road access to the city centre is via a tunnel under the railway line, whilst access on foot is also possible using the station pedestrian subways, and thence the Lugano Città–Stazione funicular. Trasporti Pubblici Luganesi (TPL) bus route 3 connects Besso to the city centre, operating four or more buses per hour, whilst TPL route 16 connects an inner terminus on the Besso side of the railway station to Muzzano on a less frequent basis. The station can be directly accessed from the Besso side.The administrative headquarters, and radio studios, of Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI), the Italian language Swiss TV and radio broadcaster, are in Besso. The former seminary, dedicated to Saint Carlo Borromeo, now houses the Swiss Italian Conservatory and the Swiss National Sound Archive.Besso's church of Saint Nicholas of Flüe dates from 1950 and was built, by the architect Giuseppe Antonini, as a votive church. The facade is decorated with a mosaic by Francois Romand Ribas, whilst the separate bell tower contains five bells. The interior is notable for a bronze door by Venanzo Crocetti, a large ceramic by Angelo Biancini depicting four saints, and stained glass windows by the Swiss artist Willy Kaufmann.Besso is home to a kindergarten, an elementary school and a middle school, as well as a branch of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. The Parco Tassino is a 21,000 square metres (230,000 sq ft) public park in the south-east of the quarter, famous for its display of roses.

Lugano FLP railway station (Italian: Stazione di Lugano FLP) is a railway station in the municipality of Lugano, in the Swiss canton of Ticino. It is the eastern terminus of the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge Lugano–Ponte Tresa line of Ferrovie Luganesi. The station is located in the forecourt of Swiss Federal Railways' main-line Lugano railway station. The station and line opened in 1912. Between 1990 and 1992 the Lugano FLP station was renovated and expanded. The street level building is now a restaurant, although the platforms remain in use at the lower level.

Lugano railway station (Italian: Stazione di Lugano) is the main railway station of the city of Lugano, in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The station is on the Gotthard railway and is also the terminus of the Lugano Città–Stazione funicular. The metre gauge Lugano–Ponte Tresa Railway (FLP) has a separate station at Lugano FLP railway station across the station forecourt from the main line station.The station is situated on a hillside to the west of the city centre, overlooking the city and Lake Lugano, and the funicular provides a direct link from the station to the city centre below. The residential quarter of Besso lies above and to the west of the station. The station is nicknamed Terrazza del Ticino ("Terrace of Ticino") since the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016.

The Diocese of Lugano (Latin: Dioecesis Luganensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Switzerland covering the canton of Ticino. The diocese immediately exempt to the Holy See. In 2004, there were 233,017 baptised of 306,846 inhabitants. It is currently ruled by the Bishop Pier Giacomo Grampa and has as its principal patron St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, and as a secondary patron Saint Abundius, Bishop of Como.

The Lugano District (Italian: Distretto di Lugano also called Luganese) is a district of Canton of Ticino, southern Switzerland. The capital is the city of Lugano. It has a population of 150,556 (as of 31 December 2020).

The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the first edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) and Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI). The contest, originally titled the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne 1956 (Italian: Gran Premio Eurovisione 1956 della Canzone Europea, English: Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Competition), was held on Thursday 24 May 1956 at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland, and hosted by Swiss television presenter Lohengrin Filipello, which remains the only time that the contest has been hosted by a solo male presenter. Inspired principally by the Italian Sanremo Music Festival, held annually since 1951, the concept of a televised European song contest, initially proposed by Italian broadcaster RAI, was formulated by an EBU committee led by Swiss broadcaster and executive Marcel Bezençon. Following approval at the EBU's General Assembly in 1955, the rules and structure of the contest were agreed upon. Several of the rules utilised in this first contest would subsequently be altered for future editions, and it remains the only edition in which each country was represented by two songs, with only solo performers allowed to compete, and a voting process which was held in secret and where juries could vote for the entries from their own country. Seven countries participated in the inaugural edition of the contest, and the first winner was the host country Switzerland, with the song "Refrain" performed by Lys Assia. The result was determined by an assembled jury composed of two jurors from each country, with each juror ranking each song between 1 and 10 points. Only the winning country and song were announced at the conclusion of the event, with the results of the remaining participants unknown. Even though it was broadcast on television and radio via the Eurovision network in ten countries, no video footage of the event is known to exist, with the only video available being of the reprise performance from an independent archiver; the majority of the broadcast is, however, available in audio.

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.

The Lugano Città–Stazione funicular, Funicolare Lugano Città–Stazione, or Sassellina, is a funicular railway in the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The line's upper station is located within the main railway station of Lugano, and the lower station is on Piazza Cioccaro in the historic city centre below. It is one of the busiest funicular lines in Switzerland, carrying 2.4 million passengers in 2007.The Lugano Città–Stazione funicular is one of three funiculars within the Lugano area. The other two are the Monte Brè funicular, which ascends Monte Brè, and the Monte San Salvatore funicular, which ascends Monte San Salvatore.