Gandria

Geschichte

Gandria is both a quarter of the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino, and a village, on the northern shore of Lake Lugano, which forms the core of that quarter. Until 2004, the quarter of Gandria was an independent municipality, joining with Lugano in that year.The quarter of Gandria includes the rural slopes surrounding the village and stretching along the lakeside from the neighbouring quarter of Castagnola-Cassarate to the border with Italy. It also includes the slopes on the opposite, southern, side of the lake, around the small settlement of Cantine di Gandria, that are accessible only by boat or on foot.The historically protected center of the village of Gandria, which is also not accessible by car, attracts visitors from all over the world. Whilst roads now reach the outskirts of the village, many of these visitors arrive by boat services on the lake. It is also possible to walk from Lugano to Gandria to Lugano via a footpath, now branded the Olive path, which passes plantations of olive trees and offers views of the Lake of Lugano.HistoryEarly historyThe first lasting human traces on the immediate area around Gandria come from the iron-age people of the Celts (as of 800 B.C.). A large stone (Sasso della Predescia) carved with mysterious signs, probably used for Celtic religious purposes, is located within hiking distance. Many modern locations nearby have Celtic names. Gandria sits at the base of Mt. Brè, which means “mountain” in Celtic. The name of the Lake of Lugano in Italian, Ceresio, could be derived from the Celtic word keresios, a reference to a god of fertility who is always pictured with the antlers of a deer – the lake’s resemblance to the prongs of an antler can be more easily imagined when viewed from above.