Locarno walking tour & city guide

Piazza Grande and the old town

Piazza Grande is the long cobbled square at the centre of Locarno, lined with arcades, cafés and pastel houses. Every August it becomes the open-air cinema of the Locarno Film Festival, founded in 1946, when thousands of people watch films on a giant screen under the night sky.

Behind the square, the old town climbs in narrow lanes past churches, palazzi and small courtyards. At its lower edge stands the Castello Visconteo, a medieval castle of the Visconti dukes of Milan that now holds the town museum. In 1925 Locarno hosted the conference that led to the Locarno Treaties between the powers of postwar Europe.

Madonna del Sasso and the lake

The sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso, founded in the late 15th century, stands on a wooded rock high above the town, its yellow church visible from the whole bay. A funicular climbs to it from the centre, and a cable car and chairlift continue to Cardada and Cimetta for wide views over the lake and the Alps.

The lakeside promenade runs from Locarno through Muralto and Minusio, past gardens, beaches and the pier where boats leave for Ascona, the Brissago Islands and the Italian shore. Ascona, a lakeside town of colourful houses, is only a short ride away, and the green waters of the Verzasca valley and the Centovalli railway start nearby.

A walking route

Begin at Piazza Grande and wander up through the old town lanes, then come back down to the Castello Visconteo. Walk to the lake and follow the promenade along the bay to Muralto, then take the funicular, or the steep path of chapels, up to Madonna del Sasso for the view over the town and the lake before returning to the centre.

Visiting tips

Locarno is about two and a half hours from Zurich by train through the Gotthard Base Tunnel, with a change at Bellinzona on some services. Spring brings camellias and blossom, summer the film festival in August, and autumn chestnuts and grape harvest in the valleys. Evenings in the old town and on Piazza Grande are warm and lively from May to September.