Bellinzona

Bellinzona railway station (Italian: Stazione di Bellinzona) serves the town of Bellinzona, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is on the Swiss Federal Railways' Gotthard line. The station is nicknamed Porta del Ticino ("Gate of Ticino") since the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016.

Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino is a Swiss cantonal bank which is part of the 24 cantonal banks serving Switzerland's 26 cantons. Founded in 1915, it has branches across Ticino with 427 employees in 2015. Total assets of the bank were 18,620.37 million CHF in 2022.It has full state guarantee of its liabilities. In 2013, 75% of its income came from lending interests, leading the bank to consider acquiring a private banking unit to diversify its assets.

The Castles of Bellinzona are a group of fortifications located around the town of Bellinzona, the capital of the Swiss canton of Ticino. Situated on the Alpine foothills, the group is composed of fortified walls and three castles named Castelgrande, Montebello and Sasso Corbaro. Castelgrande is located on a rocky peak overlooking the valley, with a series of walls that protect the old city and connect to Montebello. Sasso Corbaro, the highest of the three castles, is located on an isolated rocky promontory south-east of the other two. The Castles of Bellinzona with their defensive walls have been an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

Stadio Comunale Bellinzona is a multi-use stadium in Bellinzona, Switzerland. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of AC Bellinzona. As of 2009, the stadium has an official capacity of 5,000 people, but could hold up to 20,740. The stadium has 600 seats. Here is a breakdown of the capacities of each of the five stands of the stadium:

Rabadan is a carnival festival that takes place in the town of Bellinzona, capital of southern canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It is a very lively festival, especially alluring for its spontaneous popular character. It has been ongoing now for more than 150 years. It attracts people from the rest of Switzerland and neighbouring Italy and during its peak evenings tens of thousands of people take to the streets wearing colourful carnival costumes.

The district of Bellinzona (Italian: Distretto di Bellinzona, also called Bellinzonese) is a district of Canton Ticino, Switzerland. It has a population of 55,906 (as of 31 December 2020).

Carasso and Galbisio are the parts of Bellinzona, Switzerland, located on the west side of the river Ticino. The patriciate of Carasso (patriciates of canton Ticino) is responsible for the management of the forest and other community resources of the fraction. Carasso was a municipality of its own until 1907.

Bellinzona was the name of a canton of the Helvetic Republic, with its capital in Bellinzona. The canton was founded in 1798 with the slogan Liberi e svizzeri (Italian for Freemen and Swiss) as a means of remaining a part of Switzerland, rather than being annexed to the Cisalpine client republic. The canton was made up of the four Landvogteien of Bellinzona, Blenio, Leventina and Rivera. The autonomy enjoyed by Bellinzona was quite limited, exposed as the canton was to both external intervention and pressure from the warring parties north of the Alps. Within days of the cantons' founding, the Swiss Grand Council proposed merging Bellinzona with Lugano; in order not to provoke local conflicts, however, the measure was rapidly reversed. Another abortive attempt was made, by the two cantons in question this time, to investigate a union between them in 1801 but, again, no agreement could be reached. The cantonal government was headed by Giuseppe Antonio Rusca, a representative of the central government, equipped with broad powers; he was replaced by Giacomo Antonio Sacchi in October 1801. To the central government, the canton sent two senators and eight representatives to the Grand Council. The new political system was very unpopular with the citizens of the canton; mainly due to the imposition of direct taxation and mandatory military service, as well as the dismantling of political structures of the Old Swiss Confederacy and the anti-clerical measures imposed by Napoleon's revolutionary forces. The struggles in the Republic between the Unitaires and the Federalists caused anti-French unrest to break out in the Leventina — the most northerly part of the canton — in 1799, which led to secessionist moves, with many in the area wanting to join with nearby Uri, then within the Helvetic canton of Waldstätten. As was the case with Lugano, the canton suffered particularly from the opposing troops — French, Austrian, and Russian — marching through the region, requiring accommodation and requisition of property, causing the two cantons to become increasingly alienated from the rest of Switzerland. With Napoleon's Act of Mediation abolishing the Helvetic Republic and restoring the sovereignty of the cantons, the merger with Lugano was finally effected, creating the Ticino.

The Battle of Arbedo was fought on 30 June 1422 between the Duchy of Milan and the Swiss Confederation, and ended with a Milanese victory. In 1419, the Swiss cantons of Uri and Unterwalden bought the fortified town of Bellinzona from the House of Sax but were unable to defend it adequately. When they rejected a Milanese proposal to purchase Bellinzona in 1422, a Milanese force under the command of the condottiero Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola attacked and defeated the Swiss garrison and occupied the town. A Swiss attempt to recapture Bellinzona with the support of other cantons including Lucerne and Zug led to the battle at the village of Arbedo, 3 km (1.9 mi) north of the town. The Swiss were mainly equipped with halberds and were initially successful in repelling two Milanese cavalry charges. Carmagnola then brought up his crossbowmen on the Swiss flanks and ordered his men-at-arms to dismount and fight on foot with their lances, which outreached the halberds. The Milanese forced the Swiss back onto a nearby hill, but the appearance of a band of foragers, whom the Milanese mistakenly thought were reinforcements, saved the Swiss from total defeat. When the Milanese force pulled back to reform, the Swiss withdrew from the battlefield, both sides having taken heavy casualties. In a historiographical tradition of Zug, the bearer of the cantonal banner, Peter Kälin, was slain, and the banner was taken up by his son, who was slain in his turn. The banner was saved by one Hans Landwing, and was later lost against the French. The victory secured Bellinzona and the Leventina for the Duchy. In addition, the Duchy regained the Val d'Ossola, thus the Swiss lost all their territorial gains. The defeat discouraged Swiss expansion towards Lake Maggiore for a long time. However, it was this defeat at Arbedo that led to the Swiss increasing the number of pikemen in their armies.

Gorduno is a former municipality in the district of Bellinzona in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 2 April 2017 the former municipalities of Camorino, Claro, Giubiasco, Gnosca, Gudo, Moleno, Monte Carasso, Pianezzo, Preonzo, Sant'Antonio and Sementina merged into the municipality of Bellinzona.

The Moesa is a 47-kilometre (29 mi) river, a tributary of the Ticino, which flows through the Swiss cantons of Grisons and Ticino. It rises in Val Vignun near the San Bernardino Pass and descends, along with the A13 motorway, through the Val Mesolcina towards Roveredo, where it receives the rivers Calancasca and Traversagna. Near Arbedo-Castione the Moesa flows into the Ticino. The Moesa is a popular river for kayaking.

Pianezzo is a former municipality in the district of Bellinzona in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 2 April 2017 the former municipalities of Camorino, Claro, Giubiasco, Gnosca, Gorduno, Gudo, Moleno, Monte Carasso, Preonzo, Sant'Antonio and Sementina merged into the municipality of Bellinzona.