Louis Favre (1826-1879) was born on January 28, 1826, in Chêne Thonex (Canton of Geneva). He studied as a carpenter in Neully-sur-Marne (near Paris) and followed courses of architecture and engineering. The epoch of the first industrialization in the first half of the 19th century shaped innovative transport means as […]
Month: June 2018
Allied bombings on lake Maggiore September 1944
A commonly unknown chapter of the final phase of the Second World War in the Insubrica region is related to the bombardment of two hamlets and the sinking of three ships in two days. And all of this happened precisely on Monday, 25 September 1944, and the next day on […]
Tremola and its engineer Meschini
Francesco Meschini was born in Piazzogna (today the municipality of Gambarogno) on 4 August 1762. He was educated at the Academy of Brera in Milan. Becoming a young engineer and architect, he got his first assignment in 1790 in the context of the renovation project related to the church San […]
The Neuroni family from Lugano: battles against Turks
We saw earlier the mercenaries from the Insubrica region in the service of the Venice Republic, notably we wrote, last May 2018, about Bernardino Checco from Locarno. We wish to go further and to explore more in details mercenary connections between Ticino – Venice. Consequently, there is another family from […]
Smapshot: impressive research tool for aerial photography
Insubrica Historica continues to support the discovery quest of the Insubrica region heritage. We would like to introduce to our readers another new tool, following our article on geo.admin.ch. It is like a “participative time machine” which can help volunteers to geolocate historical images of Switzerland, taken in the time […]
Long gone castle in Ascona: San Michele
The castle of San Michele was located in the south-west of the town center of Ascona, on a steep rocky promontory. The castle possessed a relevant extent of a rectangular shape with nine floors. The parameters of the caste were approximately the following: 130m by 50m which is about 6’500 […]
First engineer of Gotthard: Pietro Morettini
Pietro Morettini was born in 1660 in Camanoglio, near Cerentino, in the Canton Ticino. Cerentino is still a tiny hamlet situated in the remote Valley of Rovana which is a part of the Valley Maggia, in the North-Eastern part of the Canton Ticino. Morettini’s biography can be divided into five […]