2023
2024
The landscape of Fontana - Bosco - Mondada in Val Bavona has been ravaged. The flooding on June 29th and 30th has caused destruction and the loss of lives, and irreversibly transformed the cultural landscape. Within six hours, the sky released the amount of rain that usually falls in one or two months. The landslide in Fontana moved 300,000 m3 of material and a massive boulder from Valle di Larèchia.
Damages incurred
In addition to public utilities such as aqueducts and the road, a large number of private buildings were destroyed, some of which were houses or “rustici” (remodeled stone cottages) along with several components of the cultural landscape, amongst which chapels, a mill, dry-stone wall terracings, “callaie” (narrow passages used to access cultivated plots), “splüi” (rock constructions), hanging fields, and the Chiall bridge.
Urgent interventions
Thanks to several provisional works, by spring 2025, the road was re-opened, the communal aqueduct which catches the water from the Chiall source was restored, and so was the local aqueduct of Fontana. The pipes on the large boulder are temporary. Reclamation has begun on some agricultural plots.
The “Reconnecting the landscape” project
A historic landscape born from centuries of interaction between man and nature, was devastated. Simply reconstructing what has been is neither possible, nor sensible. The reconstitution project contemplates a new landscape that will be able to convey the bond with the past through symbolic elements or targeted interventions that tell the story of the landscape and the transformations it has undergone, thus preserving its memory.
The participatory process
The community and the local players will actively contribute to defining the future territory by means of a participatory process which will allow a collective vision to emerge.
The Fontana - Bosco - Mondada landscape reconstitution project represents an opportunity to transform a tragedy into a collective regeneration process, by giving the land and the community a new balance between the past, the present and the future.
spring –
autumn 2025
launching of the participatory process and reclaiming of first plots
autumn 2025 –
autumn 2026
preliminary planning, development of an initial vision
second semester of 2026 –
second semester of 2027
detailed design, elaboration of the proposed solutions
from the second semester of 2027
execution of the main works
Support the project
The necessary investment for the landscape reconstitution project is estimated at 5 ̶10 million Swiss francs. The valuable donations that were received and the ordinary budget of the Cevio Commune do not suffice. We need your help.