Bavona Valley

From Locarno, having travelled Vallemaggia up to Cavergno, you reach the entrance to the Bavona Valley. Immediately you are confronted with very high cliffs and the remains of colossal landslides that make this valley one of the most fascinating in Ticino. The Bavona Valley opens to the north-west of Bignasco and Cavergno, as a deep furrow in the Alpine chain, with a U-shaped profile indicating its glacial origin. A narrow valley, with slopes and rock walls that rise vertically for hundreds of metres, bare and threatening. Gigantic landslides have formed a sequence of steep and stony conoids, with boulders as big as houses rolled down to clutter the ground and obstruct the course of the river, which became tormented and violent. These are the dominant characteristics where man has settled and has managed to build villages that have softened a wild environment.

The entire territory extends over 124 km2 of mountainous area. The valley bottom that goes from Cavergno (450 msl) to San Carlo (950 msl) is a strip about ten kilometres long that occupies 14 km2, making up one-tenth of the territory. Cultivated land accounts for only 1.5% of the total area, while as much as 70% of the soil is unproductive.
Human settlements in the Bavona Valley date back to very ancient times, but it is difficult to say when they began. It can be said with certainty that a stable population resisted in Bavona until around 1500. Later, following many natural disasters, there was the exodus of people towards the bottom of the valley, in Cavergno and Bignasco, keeping Bavona as a hinterland to occupy during the summer.
Villages of the Bavona Valley: Mondada, Fontana, Alnedo, Sabbione, Ritorto, Foroglio, Roseto, Fontanellata, Faedo, Bolla, Sonlerto, Gannariente, San Carlo.