Markets and fairs: Bellinzona, Lugano, Locarno and the Lombard towns

The market towns of the bailiwicks

The transit road connected a chain of market towns, each of which had its own weekly market and one or more annual fairs. Chapter A.I describes how Lugano, Locarno, Bellinzona and Mendrisio acquired market rights under the bishops of Como, the Visconti and the Sforza. Under Confederate rule these rights were confirmed and in some cases extended, since markets produced duties and attracted buyers for the cattle and cheese of the cantons.¹ The weekly market served the local population: peasants sold grain, chestnuts, wine, cheese, butter and small livestock, and bought salt, iron tools, cloth and other goods brought by traders. The annual fairs were larger events that lasted several days and drew merchants and dealers from Lombardy, the Grisons and central Switzerland. They were the principal occasions for the sale of cattle and horses and for the settlement of debts.

Bellinzona's great fair of St Bartholomew (24 August) is attested from about 1420, and its Saturday market is still held today in the old town.² Its position at the junction of the Gotthard, Lukmanier and San Bernardino routes made it the natural market for the Leventina, the Val di Blenio, the Riviera and the Mesolcina. Locarno's market served the Vallemaggia, the Verzasca, the Centovalli and the Gambarogno, while its lake harbour connected it with the Lombard shore of Lake Maggiore. Mendrisio and the Mendrisiotto looked south to Como and Varese, with a market closely integrated with the Lombard economy. Lugano, finally, combined a weekly market with the most important annual fair of the southern bailiwicks.

The autumn fair of Lugano

The fair of Lugano (fiera di Lugano) was held each year in October as a fair of cattle and horses and was the principal livestock fair of the territory. It was the destination of herds driven over the Gotthard from Schwyz, Lucerne, the Bernese Oberland and the Grisons as well as from Ticino itself, and Italian buyers were its most important customers.³ The Confederate authorities protected the fair because it served the cattle trade of the ruling cantons. The landfogto guaranteed the market peace, the dazio collected duties on the animals sold and the brokers of the town mediated between sellers from the north and buyers from the south. In the early 1840s an average of almost 19,000 cattle and 1,000 to 1,200 horses were brought to it each year.⁴

The Lugano fair is a good example of the way a periodic market depended on intermediaries. When Italians came to central Switzerland to buy cattle under the old regime, they took so-called Dolmetscher (interpreters) into their service, who either bought on their behalf or acted as brokers. Many cattle dealers combined their trade with dealing in cloth, wine and spices, so that a sale of animals could be set against purchases of other goods. Where buyer and seller met only once a year, part of the price could be left open until the next fair.⁵ The fair was therefore also a clearing occasion at which debts from previous transactions were paid, renewed or set off against each other. The same function was performed on a larger scale by the great European exchange fairs, of which the Genoese fairs of Besançon and later Piacenza were the most important for the Italian and Swiss trade (see the eighth section).

The fair survived the end of the old regime and remained an important livestock market in the nineteenth century, when it still drew almost 19,000 cattle a year. The modern city's trade fair and congress activities stand in a distant line of descent.⁶

Notes

1. See Chapter A.I. Ceschi (ed.), Storia della Svizzera italiana dal Cinquecento al Settecento (as above). ↩
2. HLS, art. "Bellinzona (Gemeinde)" (as above), for the fair of St Bartholomew; Ticino Turismo, "Il mercato di Bellinzona", https://www.ticino.ch/it/commons/details/Il-mercato-di-Bellinzona/ 2895.html, for the Saturday market. ↩
3. Canton of Ticino, Scuola ticinese no. 86, "Tavole XXV e XXVI: La Fiera di Lugano", https://www4.ti.ch/fileadmin/DECS/DS/Rivista_scuola_ticinese/ST_n.86/ ST_86_Schneiderfranken_fiera_di_Lugano.pdf. ↩
4. Scuola ticinese no. 86 (as above), which gives annual averages of 18,870 cattle and 1,000 to 1,200 horses for 1841–1843. ↩
5. HLS, art. "Viehhandel" (as above): "Kamen Italiener im Ancien Régime zum Viehkauf in die Innerschweiz, so nahmen sie sogenannte Dolmetscher in ihren Dienst, die entweder in ihrem Auftrag einkauften oder als Makler fungierten", and on dealers who combined the cattle trade with "Tuch-, Wein- und Spezereihandel". The settlement of open prices at the next fair is the author's inference from the annual rhythm of the market. ↩
6. Scuola ticinese no. 86 (as above), for the figures of 1841–1843. The line of descent is the author's observation. ↩

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.