Monday, 12 March 2012 - 01:10 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Free Trade Association Category/Kategorie: GeneralReading Time: 4minutes
Lugano is a city of 54,667 inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy. The city lies on Lake Lugano, and its warm summers and the fact that in recent years it has attracted an ever growing number of celebrities, entertainers and successful athletes have given it the nickname of the “Monte Carlo of Switzerland”. It is the 9th largest city of Switzerland by population.
In 1975, the Congress Center was built followed in 1978 by the new City Hospital. In 1963 the city acquired the land for the airfield Lugano-Agno, and the first scheduled flights was in 1980. At the beginning of the 21st century they began the Grande Lugano projects, including: the car tunnel Vedeggio-Cassarate, which started in 2005 and connects the A2 motorway with the neighborhood of Cornaredo, the creation of a new Kulturpol on the site of the former Grand Hôtel Palace and a convention and exhibition center in the area of Campo Marzio.
As of 2009, there were 43 hotels in Lugano with a total of 1,584 rooms and 2,889 beds. The airline Darwin Airline has its head office on the grounds of Lugano Airport in Agno, near Lugano.
Lugano is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Switzerland. Both Lake Lugano and the surrounding mountains provide a wide variety of outdoor activities. Lugano is, also, home to a number of historic buildings and museums.
There are 17 sites in Lugano that are part of the Swiss heritage site of national significance. The city of Lugano, the villages of Barbengo, Brè-Aldesago, Gandria and Biogno and the sites of Cantine di Gandria and Castagnola are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
The heritage sites of national significance included two libraries, the Biblioteca Cantonale and the Biblioteca Salita dei Frati as well as the Swiss National Recording Archives (Fonoteca nazionale svizzera). There were three churches; Cathedral of S. Lorenzo, Church of S. Maria degli Angioli and the Church of S. Rocco. There were three museums; the Museo cantonale d’arte, the Museo cantonale di storia naturale and the Villa Ciani complex with the Museo civico. The cemetery complex at via Trevano is also one of the sites, as is the Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RTSI) Italian-language broadcast facility. The rest of the sites are notable houses throughout the city. They include; the Palazzo civico at piazza della Riforma, the Palazzo e cinema Corso at via Pioda, the Palazzo Riva at via Francesco Soave, the Palazzo Riva at via Massimiliano Magatti, the Palazzo Riva at via Pretorio 7 and Villa Favorita in Castagnola.
