Chronology 1798–1913: the young canton
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This part of the chronology of Lugano and Ticino as a financial centre covers 78 entries. Each entry names the chapter of the book in which the event is discussed.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1798–1914 | |
| 1798 | The Helvetic Republic recognizes German, French and Italian as official languages. (Chapter J.I) |
| February– March 1798 | Led by Basel, the sovereign cantons release the Italian bailiwicks, which form provisional free republics. Lugano's provisional government proclaims Swiss citizenship "the finest of all titles" (14 March). (Chapters A.II, C.I) |
| 15 February 1798 | Lugano's volunteer corps repels a Cisalpine coup and declares for Switzerland under the motto Liberi e Svizzeri. (Chapters A.II, C.I) |
| 12–14 April 1798 | The Helvetic Republic replaces the Old Confederation. The former bailiwicks enter it as the cantons of Lugano and Bellinzona. (Chapter C.I) |
| 21 September 1799 | Suvorov's army of some 21,000–22,000 men sets out from Taverne over the Ceneri and up the Leventina to the Gotthard. (Chapter C.I) |
| 19 February 1803 | Act of Mediation: the eight former bailiwicks become the Canton of Ticino, one of nineteen sovereign cantons. (Chapter C.I) |
| 20 May 1803 | First session of the Grand Council in Bellinzona. On 26 May the Small Council fixes the cantonal colours red and blue. (Chapter C.I) |
| 31 October 1810 | Italian troops occupy Ticino. They withdraw on 7 November 1813 after Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig. (Chapter C.I) |
| December 1814 | A restrictive constitution, imposed under Allied pressure after the Giubiasco revolt, introduces the landamani regime and the six- yearly rotation of the capital. (Chapter C.I) |
| 20 November 1815 | The Second Peace of Paris recognizes Swiss neutrality as permanent. (Chapter C.I) |
| 1827–1830 | The carriage road over the Gotthard is built, with Karl Emanuel Müller's new bridge in the Schöllenen. A stagecoach service follows from 1831. (Chapter A.IV) |
| 1827 or 1828 | Stefano Franscini publishes the Statistica della Svizzera in Lugano. (Chapter C.I) |
| 4 July 1830 | Constitutional reform makes Ticino the first canton of the liberal Regeneration. (Chapter C.I) |
| 9 October 1830 | Foundation of the Tipografia Elvetica at Capolago, which publishes more than 350 titles for the Italian market until 1853. (Chapter C.II) |
| 1833 | The Milanese banker's son Giacomo Ciani settles permanently in Lugano and finances the exiles. Mazzini first visits Lugano in June. (Chapter C.II) |
| From 1833 | Swiss extradition treaties exempt persons who fled because of political offences, the core of the Swiss law of asylum. (Chapter C.II) |
| 1833 | Foundation of the Cassa Ticinese di Risparmio, the canton's first financial institution, which channels savings into the cantonal treasury. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 14 June 1837 | Adoption of the Codice civile of the Canton of Ticino, in force from 10 January 1838. (Chapter C.I) |
| December 1839 | The radical liberals seize power in Ticino's "revolution". A conservative counter-revolution follows in July 1841. (Chapter C.I) |
| 30 October 1845 | St Gallen, Graubünden and Ticino sign a treaty at Chur on a railway from Lake Maggiore to Lake Constance by the Lukmanier. Ticino concludes a railway agreement with Piedmont on 7 December. (Chapter C.III) |
| 3 October 1847 | Inauguration of the Melide causeway, financed by a share subscription of 1844. (Chapter C.I) |
| 1848 | The Federal Constitution makes German, French and Italian national languages of the Confederation. (Chapter J.I) |
| 18 March 1848 | A law transfers the credit instruments of the religious corporations to the state treasury. (Chapter C.I) |
| 18 March 1848 | The Five Days of Milan begin. Ticinese volunteers join the war against Austria. (Chapter C.II) |
| 3 September 1848 | Ticino's voters reject the Federal Constitution (4,266 to 1,652). It enters into force nationally on 12 September 1848 and transfers customs, tolls and posts to the Confederation. (Chapter C.I) |
| November 1848 | Carlo Cattaneo arrives in Lugano as an exile. From 1849 until his death in 1869 he lives in the Peri family's house at Castagnola. (Chapter C.II) |
| 16 November 1848 | Stefano Franscini is elected to the first Federal Council, its first Italian-speaking member. (Chapter C.I) |
| 1850 | The first federal census counts 117,759 inhabitants in Ticino (138,638 in 1900). (Chapter A.III) |
| 1850 | Mazzini's committee in London issues an Italian national loan of ten million lire, for which Ticino very probably serves as a point of distribution and collection. (Chapter C.II) |
| 1850 | The federal coinage act makes the Swiss franc the single currency, ending accounting in Milanese lire in Ticino. (Chapter A.I) |
| 28 May 1852 | Ticino abolishes the male religious teaching orders and expels the mostly Lombard Capuchins. (Chapters B.III, C.II) |
| 16 November 1852 | The Liceo cantonale opens in Lugano under the school law of 9 June 1852. Cattaneo gives the inaugural lecture. (Chapter C.II) |
| 1853 | Austria sequestrates the property of Lombard exiles. The Tipografia Elvetica is dissolved on 26 March. (Chapter C.II) |
| February 1853 | After the failed Mazzinian rising in Milan (6 February), prepared in Lugano, Radetzky closes the frontier and expels more than 6,000 Ticinese from Lombardy. (Chapter C.II) |
| c. 1850s | Emigration from the Vallemaggia, the Verzasca and the Locarnese turns towards Australia and California. (Chapter A.III) |
| 19 August 1853 | Nine cantons meet in Lucerne and form a first Gotthard committee. Zurich and Ticino stay away. (Chapter C.III) |
| 1855 | The pronunciamento leads to constitutional reform and the introduction of a direct tax on income and wealth. (Chapter C.I) |
| 1856 | Alfred Escher founds the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (later Credit Suisse) in Zurich. (Chapters B.II, C.III) |
| 8 June 1858 | Legislative decree authorizing the Banca Cantonale Ticinese, a joint- stock company with CHF 1 million capital (the canton holds a fifth) and the right of note issue. It opens in Bellinzona in 1861 (sources give 1858, 1859 or 1861). (Chapter C.IV) |
| 22 July 1859 | A federal decree severs the ties of the Ticinese parishes with the dioceses of Como and Milan. (Chapter B.III) |
| 1861 | Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. Lombardy had passed from Austria to Piedmont in 1859. (Chapter C.II) |
| 7 August 1863 | The Gotthard committee is reorganized as the Gotthard Association of fifteen cantons and the two largest railway companies, the Nordostbahn and the Centralbahn, with Alfred Escher as its president. (Chapter C.III) |
| February 1866 | The Italian government commits itself to support only the Gotthard route. (Chapter C.III) |
| 15 October 1869 | Switzerland and Italy sign the Gotthard railway convention: cost CHF 187 million, financed by CHF 85 million in state subsidies (Italy 45, Germany 20, Switzerland 20) and CHF 102 million of private capital. (Chapter C.III) |
| 28 October 1871 | The German Empire accedes to the Gotthard convention. A syndicate led by the Disconto-Gesellschaft, with the Kreditanstalt, raises the CHF 102 million. (Chapter C.III) |
| 6 December 1871 | The Gotthardbahn-Gesellschaft is constituted in Lucerne. (Chapter C.III) |
| 7 August 1872 | The Gotthard tunnel contract is awarded to Louis Favre. Work begins on 1 October 1872. (Chapter C.III) |
| 1873 | The Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI) is founded in Lugano with national and Italian partners. (Chapters C.II, C.IV) |
| 23 December 1873 | A convention signed in Bern establishes Chiasso as international station (approved 27 January 1874). Its present building opens on 12 April 1932. (Chapter F.I) |
| 1874 | The Biasca–Bellinzona–Locarno and Lugano–Chiasso lines open. Chiasso grows as a customs and forwarding town, and Bellinzona receives the first Gotthardbahn workshops. (Chapters A.IV, C.III) |
| 27–28 July 1875 | Strike of the tunnel miners at Göschenen. Four strikers are shot. (Chapter C.III) |
| 1876 | A revised estimate reveals a deficit of CHF 102 million (total cost close to CHF 289 million). The Chiasso–Como line opens. (Chapter C.III) |
| 12 March 1878 | The three Gotthard states sign the supplementary treaty, which raises the subsidies by CHF 28 million (CHF 8 million of them from Switzerland) and defers the access lines in central Switzerland. (Chapter C.III) |
| 10 March 1878 | Voters approve Bellinzona as permanent capital (13,819 to 6,851). The government first sits there permanently on 14 March 1881, and the Court of Appeal moves to Lugano. (Chapters A.I, C.I) |
| 27 July 1878 | Alfred Escher resigns as president of the Gotthardbahn-Gesellschaft, having left the Kreditanstalt chair in 1877. (Chapter C.III) |
| 22 August 1878 | Federal Act on Alpine railway subsidies, including CHF 2 million for the Monte Ceneri line. Voters approve it on 19 January 1879 with 70.7 per cent. (Chapter C.III) |
| 19 July 1879 | Louis Favre dies in the tunnel. At least 177 to 199 workers die in accidents during construction. (Chapter C.III) |
| 29 February 1880 | Breakthrough of the Gotthard tunnel. (Chapter C.III) |
| 14 June 1881 | Federal Code of Obligations adopted, in force from 1 January 1883. (Chapter C.I) |
| 21–25 May 1882 | Official inauguration of the Gotthard railway. Regular through traffic in the tunnel had begun on 1 January. Scheduled operation from Immensee to Chiasso begins on 1 June, after the Ceneri line opened on 10 April, and the Luino line follows on 4 December 1882. (Chapter C.III) |
| 1885–1897 | Foundation of the Banca Popolare Ticinese (Bellinzona, 1885), the Banca Popolare di Lugano (1889) and the Credito Ticinese (Locarno, 1890), banks closely tied to the political parties. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 1887 | Riccardo Fedele opens the Splendide Royal in Lugano. (Chapter C.III) |
| 1890 | An embezzlement by its cashier triggers a run on the Banca Cantonale Ticinese, which withdraws nearly half its deposits. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 27 March 1890 | The San Salvatore funicular opens, with BSI as a major shareholder. (Chapter C.III) |
| 5 June 1890 | The Monte Generoso rack railway opens from Capolago to serve the summit hotel. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 11 September 1890 | A liberal revolution in Ticino is followed by the fifth federal intervention of the century in the canton. (Chapter C.I) |
| 1891–1892 | Ticino becomes the first canton to elect its parliament (1891) and its government (1892) by proportional representation. (Chapter C.I) |
| 1891 | The monopoly of note issue passes to the Confederation. The Swiss National Bank, created in 1905, begins operations in 1907. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 12 November 1896 | Emigrants and Locarno notables found the Banca Svizzera Americana, which opens an agency in San Francisco in 1897. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 20 February 1898 | Voters approve the repurchase of the private railways. The Swiss Federal Railways start operating on 1 January 1902. (Chapter C.III) |
| 10 December 1907 | Swiss Civil Code adopted. It enters into force on 1 January 1912 and supersedes the cantonal civil code. (Chapters A.III, C.I) |
| 1908 | The Swiss Bank Corporation opens an office in Chiasso. The Schweizerische Kreditanstalt follows in Lugano in 1913. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 10 June 1908 | The lower section of the Monte Brè funicular opens. The upper section to the summit follows on 17 February 1912. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 1 May 1909 | The Gotthard railway becomes part of the Swiss Federal Railways. (Chapter C.III) |
| 13 October 1909 | The Gotthard Convention with Germany and Italy grants tariff concessions in exchange for consent to the nationalization. A petition of 116,000 citizens opposes it. (Chapter C.III) |
| 18 November 1909 | The Ferrovie Regionali Ticinesi are founded to build and operate the Swiss section of the Locarno–Domodossola line through the Centovalli. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 1910 | The canton's eight banks have a combined balance sheet of CHF 145.1 million. (Chapter C.IV) |
| 1912 | The Federal Council expels Angelo Oliviero Olivetti. The pro-Italian journal L'Adula is founded. (Chapter C.II) |
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 October 2026.