Carlo Cattaneo in Castagnola

From Milan to Castagnola

Carlo Cattaneo was born in Milan on 15 June 1801, the son of the goldsmith Melchiorre Cattaneo. He studied law at Pavia under Gian Domenico Romagnosi, took his degree in 1824 and taught in a Milanese school until 1835.¹ From 1839 to 1844 he edited Il Politecnico, a monthly review of applied science, economics and public works that introduced the Lombard public to railways, statistics, agriculture and comparative legislation. He argued for the railway between Milan and Venice and became the most respected economic writer of Lombardy. In March 1848 he led the council of war during the Five Days, and after the Austrian return he went into exile.² He arrived in Lugano in November 1848 and lived from 1849 until his death in the country house of the Peri family at Castagnola, on the slope of Monte Brè above the lake.³ His wife, Anna Woodcock, was a British subject of Anglo-Irish origin.⁴

The house in Castagnola is today the seat of the historical archive of the City of Lugano. From 1906 to 1920 it was also the home of the Latvian poets Jānis Rainis and Aspazija, themselves political exiles from the Russian Empire, to whom a museum in the house is dedicated.⁵ The building thus records two generations of political refuge in one place. For Cattaneo it was a place of work: from Castagnola he directed the publications of Capolago, corresponded with democrats across Europe and wrote the studies on federalism, on the Alpine railway and on public education that made him the most important intellectual figure of the Italian exile in Ticino after 1848.

The Liceo cantonale

The cantonal government used the presence of the exiles to build a public secondary school. On 28 May 1852 the Grand Council abolished the male religious teaching orders in the canton, and on 9 June 1852 a new school law established cantonal ginnasi in Lugano, Mendrisio, Locarno, Bellinzona, Pollegio and Ascona and a liceo in Lugano.⁶ The Liceo cantonale opened on 16 November 1852. Cattaneo gave the inaugural lecture and taught philosophy. The cantonal authorities asked him to become the first rector, but he declined by letter of 23 October 1852, explaining that he lacked local knowledge and that his residence was too far away to allow him to be present every day without great disruption of his studies.⁷ The first rector was another exile, the Milanese physicist Giovanni Cantoni (1852–1855). The Tuscan Atto Vannucci taught Italian literature and history until 1854, while Ticinese such as the naturalist Luigi Lavizzari of Mendrisio, the first Ticinese rector (1856–1858), the mathematician Paolo Viglezio and the architect Giuseppe Fraschina completed the staff.⁸

The beginnings were modest. In the school year 1852–1853 the Liceo had twenty-three students, thirteen in the first year of philosophy, five in the second and five in architecture, and the gymnasium of Lugano eighty-four.⁹ A law of 27 September 1855 reduced the six gymnasia to one cantonal gymnasium in Lugano and turned the others into district industrial schools, mainly for financial reasons.¹⁰ Cattaneo's programme stressed the experimental sciences and a civic philosophy. In his inaugural lecture he declared that "la filosofia non rimane estranea alle sorti del popolo", philosophy does not remain a stranger to the fate of the people. He then asked his students: "Voi siete liberi; ma che gioveravvi la libertà del pensiero, se voi non avete pensieri?" You are free, but what use is freedom of thought to you if you have no thoughts?¹¹ He taught until 1865.¹²

The school reform of 1852 has a double meaning for this chapter. It was an act of cantonal sovereignty that replaced religious teaching orders, many of whose members were Lombard, with a lay school staffed in part by Italian exiles. Austria regarded it as hostile, since it formed part of the same legislative programme that led to the expulsion of the Capuchins discussed below. It was also an investment in human capital. A canton that had for centuries exported its educated sons to Milan, Rome and St Petersburg, as Chapter A.III describes, now trained its own engineers, lawyers and teachers at home, with the help of men whom Lombardy had expelled.

Notes

1. Carlo Moos, "Cattaneo, Carlo", in DSS, version of 1 February 2005, https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/010128/ (consulted 4 October 2026). ↩
2. Moos, "Cattaneo, Carlo" (above); Grab, "Five Days of Milan" (above), on the council of war. ↩
3. Mariani, "Cattaneo, un capofila del Risorgimento in Ticino" (above), on his arrival in November 1848 and the house of the Peri family; Antonio Gili, "Castagnola", in DSS, version of 15 September 2003, https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/003315/ (consulted 4 October 2026), dating his residence there from 1849 to 1869. ↩
4. Moos, "Cattaneo, Carlo" (above), describing Anna Woodcock as an English citizen; Mariani (above), describing her as "anglo-irlandese". ↩
5. Gili, "Castagnola" (above). ↩
6. Snider, "La scuola media pubblica: sua nascita e crescita negli anni Cinquanta dell'Ottocento", Scuola ticinese no. 94, PDF, https://www4.ti.ch/fileadmin/DECS/DS/Rivista_scuola_ticinese/ST_n.94/ ST_94_Snider_scuola_media_pubblica_sua_nascita_e_crescita_negli_anni_Cinquanta_dell __Ottocento.pdf (consulted 4 October 2026). The PDF gives the author's surname only. ↩
7. Gabriele Gendotti, State Councillor, address at the 150th anniversary of the Liceo cantonale di Lugano, 14 November 2002, PDF, https://www3.ti.ch/DECS/discorsi/021114_LiceoLugano_150anni.pdf (consulted 4 October 2026); Snider, "La scuola media pubblica" (above), for the date of the opening. ↩
8. Snider, "La scuola media pubblica" (above). ↩
9. Snider, "La scuola media pubblica" (above). ↩
10. Snider, "La scuola media pubblica" (above). ↩
11. Snider, "La scuola media pubblica" (above), quoting Cattaneo. ↩
12. Moos, "Cattaneo, Carlo" (above); Snider (above). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.