STEPHANE HERZOG On the post bus from Cevio to Campo, a boy is playing with his smartphone. He alights at Niva, a small village in Val Rovana. This Ticino valley is nestled in the heart of Val Maggia, north of Locarno. He is the only child of school age in the village of Campo. “I’d be happy to pay for a school bus if only there were 20 children here,” says mayor Mauro Gobbi. He tots up the number of permanent residents in the four villages that make up the municipality. Today, there are 35 of them, down from 250 in the 1950s and from around a thousand at the beginning of the 20th century. Campo has the highest percentage of second homes in Switzerland - 90.3%. The municipality lists 312 homes, but only around 30 are inhabited all year round. Just like other high-altitude valleys in Ticino, Val Rovana lost three-quarters of its population between 1860 and 1980. The bus stops in the village of Campo, at an altitude of 1,300 metres. Lofty ‘palazzi’ adorned with frescoes loom from the mist. These structures used to house wealthy families, although the men of the households were often merchants who began to leave for Italy and Germany in the late 17th century to seek their fortune. Gaspare Pedrazzini (1643-1724) was one such merchant. He ran a colonial goods store in Kassel. Alongside its two chapels and its elegant Stations Campo – once a flourishing location, now a ghost village The village of Campo, in Ticino, was once home to fabulously wealthy merchants who travelled to Italy and Germany from 1670. In the 1960s, the remaining families moved down to the plain. Today, fewer than one-tenth of homes in the village are inhabited all year round. Report by Stéphane Herzog. of the Cross, Campo also had Frenchstyle gardens. Gentlemen would parade through the town on horseback. On our way through, we stop to admire some former barns converted into second homes. Not a soul in sight! The ambiance is surreal. Here we are at Fior di Campo, a small luxury hotel whose balconies look out over Val Romana. “The view is unusually open for Ticino,” says the hotel’s owner, Vincenzo Pedrazzini. In the distance, a herd of deer goes ambling by. Pedrazzini bought the property and converted it to a hotel 12 years ago, with the aim of bringing trade back to this spot in Ticino. His family has its roots here. In Campo, as in Ticino in general, the surHigher, farther, faster, more beautiful? In search of somewhat unconventional Swiss records Today: We visit the municipality with the highest proportion of second homes in Switzerland. © Swisstopo Swiss Review / July 2024 / No.4 26 Report
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