The lie of the land: two Ticinos, two lakes and a ring of passes

Sopraceneri and Sottoceneri

The Canton of Ticino covers about 2,812 square kilometres, which places it fifth among the Swiss cantons by area.¹ Its internal division follows the relief. A low saddle, the Monte Ceneri at about 554 metres above sea level, separates the northern part, the Sopraceneri ("above the Ceneri"), from the southern part, the Sottoceneri ("below the Ceneri").² The Sopraceneri comprises the Alpine valleys and the upper basin of Lake Maggiore with Bellinzona and Locarno. The Sottoceneri consists of the hills and lakeshores around Lugano and the Mendrisiotto, the southernmost district of Switzerland, which merges into the Lombard plain at Chiasso. The distinction is still used in parts of the cantonal administration and in everyday speech. Before 1798 the Ceneri separated no jurisdictions, whether political or ecclesiastical, and the line acquired political weight only in the nineteenth century, when the Alpine north and the more urban south developed different economic and political profiles.³

The Monte Ceneri was a modest obstacle in physical terms, although it mattered in the Middle Ages because it was wooded, sparsely inhabited and notorious for highway robbery. Travellers who came down the Leventina towards Milan could avoid it by taking a boat at Magadino and travelling down Lake Maggiore to Sesto Calende and then along the Ticino river. Those who wanted to reach Lugano and Como had to cross it. The choice between the lake route and the Ceneri route recurs throughout the economic history of the region. It explains why Bellinzona, placed just north of the fork, became the military and fiscal key of the whole territory.⁴

The lakes

Two lakes give the southern part of the canton its character. Lake Maggiore, the Verbano of Latin and Italian usage, lies at about 193 metres above sea level, which is the lowest point of Switzerland. Only its northern end, with Locarno, Ascona, Brissago and the Magadino plain, belongs to Switzerland, while the greater part of the lake is Italian and was for centuries a Milanese waterway.⁵ Lake Lugano, the Ceresio, lies at about 271 metres. Its irregular shape, with arms reaching towards Porlezza in the east and Ponte Tresa in the west, made it a system of short crossings more than a single route. Since the nineteenth century the causeway of Melide has divided the lake in two, but in the Middle Ages the lake could be crossed only by boat, so that its shores were linked by ferries and lake transport.⁶

The lakes were economic assets in their own right. They supplied fish for the Lenten markets of Como and Milan, they carried stone from the quarries of the lake shores and timber from the valleys, reducing the cost of moving heavy goods to a fraction of what a mule train would charge. Water transport also mattered for power. A lord who controlled the ports of Magadino, Locarno or Lugano could collect tolls on goods that had no practical alternative route. The medieval disputes over lake rights, fishing rights and landing places are therefore disputes about revenue, which is why such rights figure among the regalia held by local noble families.⁷

Notes

1. Dizionario storico della Svizzera (DSS), art. "Ticino (cantone)", https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/007394/2022-10-24/ (area of 2,812.5 km²); Wikipedia, "Cantons of Switzerland", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantons_of_Switzerland (consulted as a last resort for the ranking after Graubünden, Bern, Valais and Vaud). ↩
2. DSS, art. "Sopraceneri", https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/008550/; for the altitude of the pass (554 m) Wikipedia, "Monte Ceneri Pass", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Ceneri_Pass (consulted as a last resort). ↩
3. DSS, art. "Sopraceneri" (above), which states that the Ceneri formed no administrative, ecclesiastical or political boundary before the nineteenth century; DSS, art. "Ticino (cantone)" (above), on the Alpine character of the Sopraceneri and the pre-Alpine character of the Sottoceneri. ↩
4. DSS, art. "Bellinzona (comune)", https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/002031/2022-12-16/. On the Ceneri as a place of robbery and on the lake route via Magadino see Chapter A.IV. ↩
5. DSS, art. "Sopraceneri" (above), giving 193 m at Lake Maggiore; Wikipedia, "Lake Maggiore", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Maggiore (consulted as a last resort), on the lowest point of Switzerland and the lake's surface of about 212.5 km², of which only the northern end is Swiss. ↩
6. DSS, art. "Lugano (comune)", https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/002177/2022-12-22/, dating the causeway (ponte-diga) between Melide and Bissone to 1844–1847; Wikipedia, "Lake Lugano", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Lugano (consulted as a last resort), on the altitude of 271 m, the arms towards Porlezza and Ponte Tresa and the later use of the causeway by the Gotthard railway. ↩
7. DSS, art. "Capitanei di Locarno", https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/041282/2008-12-01/, listing tolls, fishing, market and other regalia among the rights of the capitanei. The modern law of public waters in Ticino is cantonal law and falls outside this chapter. ↩

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.