Valle Leventina

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Valle Leventina (German mostly Leventina for short , outdated Livinental ) is a valley in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland .

Valle Leventina with Airolo

geography

The Leventina extends from Airolo at the southern end of the Gotthard Pass to Biasca . The Ticino (Ticino) flows through it. Together with the Val Bedretto in the west, it forms the Distretto di Leventina (Leventina district).

The valley lies on an important north-south axis in Europe. The Gotthard Pass at the upper end of the Leventina has influenced the history of the valley for centuries. First the old Gotthardstrasse ran through the Leventina, later the Gotthardbahn and then the A2 motorway , which connects Chiasso with Basel . The south portal of the Gotthard Base Tunnel , the longest railway tunnel in the world, is located in Bodio . The Leventina has numerous side valleys. The most important are the Val Piumogna near Dalpe , the Val Chironico near Chironico and the Val d'Ambra near Personico on the right and the Val Canaria near Airolo and the Val Piora above Piotta on the left. In the Val Piora lies the Ritom reservoir and the Cadagno lake , which is mainly known to biologists .

The valley is divided into three parts by gorges.

Alta Leventina

The upper part of the valley lies above the Piottino Gorge and is called Alta Leventina . The Alta Leventina includes the municipalities of Airolo , Quinto , Prato Leventina and Dalpe , as well as the municipality of Bedretto in the western Val Bedretto . The valley floor of the Alta Leventina is between 950 meters at Rodi-Fiesso and 1150 meters at Airolo. Another gorge, the Stalvedro gorge, is located in the Alta Leventina just below the village of Airolo. Although this gorge was also an obstacle on the pass road in the past, it does not play a role in the subdivision of the valley, as it is not associated with a height difference.

Media Leventina

The church of Calonico dominates the Media Leventina from its rocky promontory outside the village.

The Media Leventina is the middle part of the valley from the Piottino Gorge to the Biaschina Gorge southwest of Lavorgo . After the parish mergers , Faido forms the only parish in the Media Leventina. These now include the former municipalities of the so-called. Traversa Anzonico , Cavagnago and Sobrio , which are accessible via Lavorgo and as part of the municipality of Faido merger with the county Giornico for county Faido have converted. The valley floor of the Media Leventina lies between 650 m near Lavorgo and 750 m above Faido.

Bassa Leventina

The part below the Biaschina Gorge to Biasca is called Bassa Leventina and has a purely southern character. The communities Giornico , Bodio , Pollegio and Personico belong to the Bassa Leventina . The bottom of the Bassa Leventina is between 300 and 400 meters high.

Bassa Leventina was also a variant of the municipality name of a merger project in the region, which should include the municipalities of Bodio , Giornico and then Sobrio (the latter has now merged with Faido).

dialect

The numerous local dialects spoken in the Valle Leventina belong to the western group of Lombard . The influence from the north is particularly noticeable in the upper part of the valley: Many words in Airolo , for example, come from Alemannic.

Compared to the urban areas of Ticino, the Lombard dialect holds up better in the Alpine valleys, but here too it is under the pressure of standard Italian.

history

The current coat of arms of Faido was also the coat of arms of the Leventina valley until 1798

In a will of 948, Bishop Atto von Vercelli bequeathed the three Ambrosian valleys belonging to his own property ( Allod ) to the Milan Cathedral Chapter and thus laid the foundation for the spiritual and secular rule of the Canons over the Leventina, Blenio and Riviera .

As a valley leading to and from the Gotthard Pass, the Leventina has always played a central role in crossing the Alps. In the conflict over control of the area, there were repeated fights between the canton of Uri and the rulers or the later duchy of Milan . The battle of Giornico in 1478 brought the decision in favor of the Uri: With their victory they became unrestricted masters of the Leventina until the fall of the old Confederation in 1798. They secured their rule through land bailiffs sent to the area.

A revolt of the inhabitants against the rule of the Uri came to a bloody end in 1755. Three leaders were beheaded in the main town of Faido.

photos

  • Leventina with Ambri-Piotta by Eduard Spelterini , around 1900

  • Hiking trail in the Leventina

Strada Alta

The Strada Alta ( Italian for "high path") is a well-known panoramic hiking route that crosses the entire Leventina valley above the valley floor from Airolo to Biasca.

literature

Web links

Commons : Valle Leventina  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alta Leventina on ETHorama
  2. ↑ Media Leventina on ETHorama
  3. ↑ Bassa Leventina on ETHorama
  4. ↑ Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz , Volume I, pp. 333–335.

Coordinates: 46 ° 28 '52.1 "  N , 8 ° 47' 28"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred and three thousand eight hundred fifty-five  /  148 652