Lugano & Bellinzona, weekend #2

A note before this past weekend

I have realized that while I take plenty of pictures of churches I don't take enough pictures of anything else, so that is my resolution for the week, I will try to diversify my blog photos.

This past weekend I spent the week locally, staying at the villa. Just fifteen minutes north by train is the small city of Lugano. It is a very wealthy city with more designer stores than I have seen in my visits to New York City. We took the local train early afternoon friday to spend some time seeing the city. It was a wonderful weekend to be there because there was a jazz festival throughout the city. There are many small plazas in the city and each of them had a stage with a band performing. So as we walked we passed through crowds listening to whatever band was performing and enjoyed some free entertainment. Lugano is on a lake and enjoys miles of lakefront views. After a few hours touring the city we settled down at a little open air water front bar named the Mojito Bar. We enjoyed a drink and the view as the sun began to sink behind the mountains.  After the night had ended we headed back to Riva.

The next day we took our time getting up and late in the morning took the train north about forty five minutes to the town of Bellinzona. Bellinzona is a beautiful little town that boasts an amazing statistic. Bellinzona is the home of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Three castles, Castelgrande, Montebello, and Sasso Corbaro sit on the hills overlooking the town. But before making our way to these remarkable remains we spent some time in the weekly market.

The market ran through the old part of the town, many blocks of local vendors sold their wares, goods and produce. There were lots of local cheeses meats and scarfs as well as clothing jewelry and other nick-nacks for the buying . The market was cool, but I had to write a paper on it and it wasn't nearly as awesome as the castles and churches, so lets keep moving.

What really caught my attention wandering about the market was an old church that sat overlooking one of the main plazas. Of course I found my way inside to what was incidentally the Bellinzona Cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter. It was a gorgeous church, built in the baroque style and in amazingly pristine condition, the side altars were particularly notable in their ornateness. It was a beautiful sanctuary away from the clamor of the noisy street.

The first time in I was with the group so I only stopped in for a few minutes and then kept on moving. After we had seen our fill of the market we sat down in one of the plazas to eat our bagged lunches. Afterwards we headed up the hill to the first castle, Castelgrande.

The castle is jaw dropping, as you can see it is surrounded by vineyards and in the distance on top of the nearest hill is another of the castles, and the third sits out of sight just below it. Bellinzona sits in a valley critical for north-south trade, and the rampart from which the above picture was taken stretches almost all the way across the width of the valley, ensuring that no travelers or merchants could pass without paying a tax.

After Castlegrande we came back down into the valley and up another hill to castle number two. You can see Castlegrande as well as downtown  from the picture above. Below is a picture of the Castle Montebello. We spent some time in Castle Montebello recovering from a rigorous hike up and enjoying the view of the city, the other castles, and mountains. After a while we hiked down the mountain and back into the city. From there our group decided to take a break from a long day in motion to sit down and enjoy a beer at a local cafe. We had received a map of the city earlier that day, and there were a couple of churches found on the map that we had not seen and I decided I wanted to see those. So I broke off from the group to find my way to some of the local churches.

I walked about a mile south out of town. Being a church hunter is an adventurous experience. Especially when searching to find a church off the beaten pass, you are always making a bet, especially in the modern day. Churches are often closed. In the modern day when the best you can hope for is a couple of old ladies in quiet prayer and when vandalism is prevalent, churches are often closed when Mass is not being offered, especially churches that are not accustomed to many visitors. So you may walk two miles in the blistering heat to find a closed Church. This is the most common disappointment.  I'm sure I will introduce other aspects of my church hunting experiences as the semester goes on but Bellinzona was good to me. 

My walk was well worth it. I came upon Santa Maria delle Grazie, a little parish church with a beautiful mural of the life of Christ centered around the Passion. I spent some time in wonder and prayer. The church seemed in good condition, and for the liturgically savvy interestingly enough, this parish church did not have a table altar. Anyway I enjoyed the church but having to make a train, and a few churches left to see so I headed out. There was another Church just half a mile away, I tried to get there, but the local train tracks would have sent me a mile farther down the road to back track three quarters of the way. After surveying the train tracks and the wall on the opposite side and discerning I could not cross the tracks and hop the fence. I decided I didn't have time for this one and hustled my way back into the city.

I spent about twenty minutes in the Cathedral once again for some personal prayer time. Then I found my last church for the day, St. Giovanni. Again, a beautiful baroque church, and a little out from the main street in town, so it had a few locals at prayer. My train schedule kept me on my toes and as I realized they were preparing for Mass to begin I found my way out and back to the train station, on a train and back to Riva.