Bellinzona

Bellinzona guards the point where the routes over the Gotthard, San Bernardino, Nufenen and Lukmanier passes all funnel into one valley. Whoever held it controlled the way from Germany into Italy, and from the thirteenth century the dukes of Milan spent a great deal of money making sure they held it.

The result is three castles and a wall across the valley floor, the most complete example of late-medieval defensive architecture in the Alps, and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Almost nobody stops. The trains to Lugano and Milan run straight through, and the castles are visible from the window for about fifteen seconds.

The three castles

They are connected by footpaths and can be done in half a day.

Castelgrande is the oldest and the largest, on the rock in the middle of town — occupied since the neolithic, fortified by the Romans, and rebuilt by the Sforza. A lift inside the rock takes you up from the street, which is the least expected thing in the town. Two towers, a long courtyard, and the view down onto the roofs.

Montebello, higher and to the east, is the picture: concentric walls, a dry moat and a keep, reached on foot in fifteen minutes from Castelgrande along the ridge.

Sasso Corbaro, higher again and alone on its hill, was built in six months in 1479 after the Swiss beat the Milanese at Giornico and Milan panicked. It is the steepest walk and has the widest view.

The Murata

The wall that runs across the valley floor from Castelgrande — the Murata — is what makes the site remarkable. It was not defending a town: it was closing a valley, from one mountainside to the other, to stop an army passing.

Long stretches survive, with a walkway on top and vineyards beside it. Standing on it makes the geography of the whole Alpine crossing suddenly obvious.

The town

Italian-speaking, arcaded, and rather unaffected by tourism. Piazza Collegiata and the streets around it fill on Saturday morning with one of the best markets in Ticino — cheese, chestnuts, salami, and produce from the valleys.

The Villa dei Cedri holds the art museum in a park of cedars and vines.

Getting there

• By train — Lugano 25 minutes, Zurich about two hours through the Gotthard Base Tunnel, Lucerne about two hours on the old line.
• Stopping here costs an hour or two off a journey south and is the best-value stop on that line.
• On foot — Castelgrande is five minutes from the station; the other two are a climb.

When to go

Spring and autumn. Ticino in July and August is hot and humid, and the castle walks are unshaded.

The carnival — Rabadan — in February is one of the largest in Switzerland, and the castles are floodlit through the year.

More on the country’s fortifications in castles in Switzerland.