dada (1,340 metres) – a mountain settlement with its own little church and two restaurants, a place where many Locarno locals own a second home. Star architect Mario Botta modernised the Orselina-Cardada line in 2000, redesigning the top and bottom stations. The cable cars have had automatic doors since then. Up in Cardada, the air is fresh. When you alight there in summer, it is a blessed relief from the hot, humid conditions in Locarno. You then cover the 300-metre difference in altitude between Cardada and Cimetta in a sideways chair lift dating back to the 1950s. It is the last lift of its kind in Switzerland. The panorama is breathtaking. From the mountaintop station, it’s just a few more metres’ walk up the hill to the Cimetta viewing platform. From there, you can enjoy an incredible panoramic view encompassing Switzerland’s lowest point down below, Lake Maggiore, and its highest point, the Dufourspitze, in the Valais Alps further away. A geological fault called the Periadriatic Seam runs right under this point from east to west. To oversimplify (or exaggerate), you could say that this is the border between northern and southern Higher, farther, faster, more beautiful? In search of somewhat unconventional Swiss records This edition: Cardada-Cimetta – the sunniest spot in Switzerland Ticino – or the boundary between the continental tectonic plates of Europe and Africa. A red line on the platform marks the spot. Impossible to ignore, a number of MeteoSwiss measuring devices are situated directly below this viewing point. These measure the sunshine duration, explains MeteoSwiss meteorologist Nicola Gobbi, who works at the Locarno-Monti weather station. On the roof of the MeteoSwiss offices sit an SPN1, the cutting-edge precision instrument now used to record sunshine duration, and a Solar 111 B, an older measuring device manufactured by Hänni (and still used up at Cimetta). On the Solar 111 B, solar cells are shaded successively at short intervals by a set of quickly rotating blades. All periods during which a minimum difference is exceeded between uninterrupted radiation and the value when shading occurs are defined as periods of sunshine. © Swisstopo Cardada-Cimetta, the mountain overlooking Locarno, receives an average of 2,256 hours of sunshine each year. It was formed as a result of a collision between the European and African continental plates. Photo: Gerhard Lob The sunny mountain No other place in Switzerland receives more hours of sunshine than Cardada- Cimetta above Locarno. This lofty location is a centre of solar research. Swiss Review / August 2023 / No.4 15
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