Corpo volontari luganesi

The Italian Campaign
In 1796 Northern Italy was the scene of clashes between the army led by Napoleon Bonaparte and the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, the Papal States and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The fighting ended with Napoleon’s victory, and in 1797 he set up the Cisalpine Republic in the conquered territories. This also included the territory of the Duchy of Milan, very close to Lugano.
Because of its geography and strategic position, Napoleon considered Ticino a defensive bulwark, the gateway to Switzerland and, more generally, to the northern Alps. His intention, therefore, was to overthrow the Ancien Régime in the cantons and create a Helvetic Republic on the French model. The Ticino territories thus faced a choice: remain with the Confederates and await the outcome of the clash with Napoleon, or, after almost 300 years of subordination to Switzerland, join the new Cisalpine Republic, with which they had close ties.

The Swiss defensive strategy
To cope with the situation, the Diet meeting in Aarau sent a fully empowered delegation to the Italian bailiwicks to monitor revolutionary movements and train the population in the use of arms to defend against possible Cisalpine attacks.
Bailiff Jost Remy Traxler set up the Corpo Volontari Luganesi with about sixty members, the first nucleus for the defence of the town. It was supplied with a banner, 500 arquebuses and gunpowder, a gift from the Confederate cantons (at that time only 13).

Volunteers, revolutionaries and freedom
The creation of the Corpo Volontari Luganesi did not meet with unanimity; the Consiglio dei vicini of Lugano (roughly what we would today call a modest form of City Council) was sceptical, as was the town’s cultural élite, more attracted by revolutionary values than by loyalty to the bailiffs. It is therefore not surprising that many citizens of Lugano led the Cisalpine attack on Lugano on the night of 14–15 February 1798.
 

The Cisalpines even managed to take Bailiff Traxler hostage. But in a battle that lasted only one hour, and although outnumbered, the volunteers prevailed and drove the Cisalpines back. Three Cisalpines were killed, and only one volunteer: the young Giovanni Taglioretti.

Wasting no time, at five o’clock that same afternoon, a few hundred people—volunteers and townsfolk—gathered outside the Albergo Svizzero, where the Confederates were staying, to claim their right to be “Free and Swiss”. In Piazza della Riforma, then called Piazza Grande, they raised the liberty tree, but instead of crowning it with a Jacobin cap, they placed on top a cap like the one shown on William Tell.

Consequences
If Ticino, and especially the Sottoceneri, is today part of Switzerland rather than Italy, we owe it to that single one-hour battle fought by a small band against the Cisalpines. Paradoxically, we also owe it to Napoleon, who, after abandoning the idea of creating a Helvetic Republic on the French model, gave Switzerland a new constitution with the Act of Mediation of 1803.

Watercolours:
Insurrection of 15 February 1798, Rocco Torricelli, c. 1800
Lugano Volunteers in Piazza Grande (now Piazza della Riforma), Rocco Torricelli, c. 1800

Further information:
Listen to "The Battle of Lugano" on rsi.ch produced by Jonas Marti
Watch "Free and Swiss" on the YouTube channel produced by Jonas Marti

In memory of Giovanni Taglioretti, an epitaph can still be seen today on the walls of Via Canova: “Qui/fedele al giuramento/dei Volontari Luganesi/il 15 febbraio 1798/Giovanni Taglioretti/morì per la patria”. On every anniversary of his death and every first of August, Switzerland’s national day, a uniformed detachment of the Corpo Volontari lays a laurel wreath in Via Canova and at the Independence Monument.
Standing in the heart of Piazza Castello, now Piazza Indipendenza, the obelisk was erected in 1898 to mark the first centenary of Ticino’s independence. It bears the epigraph: “Liberi e Svizzeri/il motto dei Luganesi nel 1798/un secolo dopo/ripetono esultanti i Ticinesi/e tramandano ai figli/C(on) Q(uesto) M(onumento)".

Photo: Swiss National Day, 1° August 2023

1929 – 1943 - Commander Vegezzi Emilio - Deputy Commander Viglezio Egidio

1944 – 1947 - Commander Viglezio Egidio - Deputy Commander Bernasconi Emilio

1948 – 1956 - Commander Bernasconi Emilio - Deputy Commander Maestrini Leone

1957 – 1959 - Commander Poretti Pietro - Deputy Commander Maestrini Leone

1960 – 1971 - Commander Bernasconi Adriano - Deputy Commander Magnoli Bruno

1972 – 1977 - Commander Gianella Armando - Deputy Commander Destefani Paolo

1978 – 1979 - Commander Luvini Osvaldo - Deputy Commander Mordasini Luigi

1980 – 1995 - Commander Borradori Elio - Deputy Commander Mordasini Luigi

1996 – 1999 - Commander Borradori Elio - Deputy Commander Lombardi Rinaldo

2000 – 2012 - Commander Lombardi Rinaldo - Deputy Commander Scalena Flavio

2012 – today - Commander Romaneschi Sergio - Deputy Commanders Baiardi Paolo and Scalena Flavio

In recognition of their proven loyalty, the flag was one of the very first items the volunteers received—along with weapons and gunpowder—after the Corps was formed. The original flag, now tattered and patched, is kept in the parish house of the Cathedral of Saint Lawrence in Lugano. A second flag, sewn in 1898 by the Sisters of Saint Anne for the first centenary of the “Moti di Lugano”, is displayed on the Altar of Our Lady of Grace in the same cathedral.

Our Lady of Grace with the Child is the patroness of the Corpo Volontari Luganesi and is depicted on the flag opposite the coat of arms of the City of Lugano, placed at the centre of a white cross on red flames. Other flags followed, the most recent created for the Corps’ 200th anniversary.

The uniform, which greatly enhances the Corps’ legendary aura, was specified in an order of 31 May 1797: every volunteer was required to provide himself with a dark-blue coat lined in white, with white collar, edging and lapels, white buttons, a white waistcoat and dark-blue breeches. The hat bore a cockade and a red-and-white feather, and short Hungarian-style boots were worn. In fact, the white lapels were reserved for the town company (“the whites”), while the rural company volunteers (“the reds”) wore red lapels.

In the photo : Giovanni Ronchetti, Swiss National Day, 1° August 2021