Berzona (Valle Onsernone)

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Berzona
Berzona coat of arms
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of TicinoCanton of Ticino Ticino (TI)
District : Locarno districtw
Circle : Onsernone County
Municipality : Onsernonei2
Postal code : 6661
Coordinates : 694 515  /  117 759 coordinates: 46 ° 12 '17 "  N , 8 ° 39' 48"  O ; CH1903:  694515  /  117,759
Height : 815  m above sea level M.
Area : 5  km²
Residents: 48 (December 31, 2000)
Population density : 10 inhabitants per km²
Website: www.onsernone.ch
Berzona (Valle Onsernone)

Berzona (Valle Onsernone)

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Berzona (Valle Onsernone) (Switzerland)
Berzona (Valle Onsernone)
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Parish before the merger on April 13, 2001

Berzona is a village and former political municipality in the canton of Ticino . (In the Verzasca Valley , also in the canton of Ticino, there is another place called Berzona, which belongs to the local municipality of Vogorno .)

geography

Berzona lies at 764 m above sea level. M., on the Locarno - Comologno road , in the Onsernone valley and on the left bank of the river; 4 km north-west of Cavigliano and 12 km west-north-west of Locarno in a hollow on the slope surrounded by chestnut forests. Berzona itself consists of the lower village Seghellina and the car-free upper village. The residents live all year round in both districts, the majority of them in the Unterdorf.

history

The village was first mentioned as Berzona in 1265. Since the Middle Ages, the village with the hamlets of Seghellina, Isalei and Lavello belonged to the old valley community of Onsernone. Lower parish of the Onsernone deanery. 1411-1412 Berzona made the oath of allegiance to the Savoyard captain Pierre de Chevron after the Swiss had moved into the Ossola Valley .

The church of San Defendente (with the chapels of St. Maria from 1682 and St. Maria Lauretana from 1766) was elevated to a parish church in 1777. Berzona as an independent municipality emerged when the canton was founded in 1803. From 2001 to 2015, Berzona formed the municipality of Isorno together with Loco and Auressio . This in turn was incorporated into the municipality of Onsernone in 2016 .

After the Second World War , the village became the place of residence of well-known personalities from the arts and culture as a result of emigration and the associated sale of real estate to foreigners. B. Alfred Andersch , Golo Mann and Max Frisch . The latter bought a house here in 1964 and lived in Berzona until 1984, when he returned to Zurich. Even later he stayed in Berzona again and again. His story Man appears in the Holocene takes place in Berzona. In it, the 73-year-old protagonist undertakes a hike from the Valle Onsernone via Sella and the Passo della Garina to Aurigeno in the neighboring Valle Maggia . Frisch is an honorary citizen of Berzona.

After agriculture and grazing had almost disappeared and emigration had slowed down, at the end of the 20th century the workers in Berzona found work mainly as commuters in Locarno and the surrounding area.

population

Population development
year 1597 1795 1801 1808 1850 1870 1900 1910 1950 2000
Residents 50 households 306 286 279 235 212 151 146 84 48

photos

  • The Berzona cemetery with the gravestones of Alfred and Gisela Andersch in the right half of the picture

  • Typical stone house in Berzona

  • Oratorio del Matro, dedicated to the “Madonna delle Grazie”, built in 1682

  • Parish Church of San Defendente

  • The hamlet of Sella , above Berzona, 1016 m above sea level. M.

  • Passo della Garina , 1076 m above sea level M.

  • Memorial plaque for Max Frisch in the cemetery

Attractions

The village image is classified in the inventory of protected sites in Switzerland (ISOS) as a site of national importance in Switzerland.

  • Parish Church of San Defendente (1564), the free-standing bell tower was built in 1676, with 17th century painting of Saint Carlo Borromeo meditating on the dead body of Christ
  • Rectory (1713)
  • Casa Notaris: a complex bourgeois building, the older part of which dates from 1589. The main characteristic is the arch hall and the portico
  • Oratory del Matro: this chapel was built in the 17th century and dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie
  • Oratory della Madonna di Loreto: the chapel is near Seghelina and was built in 1767 by the Lucchini family from Berzona
  • II sentiero del signor Geiser: the story by Max Frisch The man appears in the Holocene is set in Berzona, and the protagonist Geiser walks along the hiking trail that leads from Berzona over the Colmo mountain to the Garina Pass.

Personalities

Max Frisch's house
  • The Schira family from the Onsernone Valley, in Loco and later in Berzona
  • Jan Tschichold , calligrapher, typographer, poster designer, author, teacher
  • Max Frisch (1911–1991), Swiss writer and architect
  • Golo Mann (1909–1994), historian and writer. His former house, which he had built as a holiday home in 1961, stands above the village behind a chapel in a forest clearing.
  • The German writer Alfred Andersch (1914–1980) and his wife are buried in the cemetery.
  • Gisela Andersch (1913–1987), German painter, graphic artist and collage artist
  • Christoph von Schwerin (born August 2, 1933 in Prenzlau ; † December 27, 1996 there), count, literary scholar
  • Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935), German journalist and writer

literature

Web links

Commons : Berzona  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vasco Gamboni: Berzona. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 18th January 2017 .
  2. ↑ Berzona at biblio.unibe.ch/digibern/hist_bibliog_lexikon_schweiz (accessed on June 21, 2017).
  3. ^ Vasco Gamboni: Berzona. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 18th January 2017 .
  4. ↑ List of sites of national importance , directory on the website of the Federal Office of Culture (BAK), accessed on January 10, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Simona Martinoli u. a .: Guida d'arte della Svizzera italiana. Published by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona 2007, ISBN 978-88-7713-482-0 , p. 224.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Elfi Rüsch: Distretto di Locarno IV. Ed. Society for Swiss Art History, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-03797-084-3 , pp. 322–336.
  7. ^ Daniela Pauli Falconi: Schira. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 20th August 2013 .
  8. ↑ Christoph von Schwerin on portal.dnb.de (accessed on: September 17, 2016.)