In Cevio, distinctive insights into traditional storage architecture meet local history and opportunities for outdoor activities. The Museo di Valmaggia, the grotti and the historic sites offer different highlights for your stay.
Museum and Grotti in Cevio Vecchio
The Museo di Valmaggia is based in Cevio and has two exhibition sites in the historic district of Cevio Vecchio, with its patrician houses. The permanent exhibition covers local history and religiosity, women and the life cycle, as well as livestock farming and pasture management. Soapstone is also among the exhibition topics.
The museum includes an underground cellar built beneath a boulder of around 10,000 cubic metres, and a grotto. Both were used to store and process dairy products, wine, potatoes and other agricultural produce. The grotti showcase different storage solutions: the Nucleo dei grotti di Cevio comprises 69 cellars, ranging from simple ones to elaborate and complex architectural structures.
One distinctive feature of the grotti is the natural airflow between the blocks of the landslide area. This creates cool, ventilated and relatively stable storage conditions; locally, the air currents are called “fiadairöi”. The educational trail passes through the area’s passages, walkways and stairways, allowing visitors to explore this environment shaped by human activity. As local trail conditions can change, check them before your visit.
A Picnic and Historic Streetscapes
The seasonal experience “Cevio e i grotti” combines a reserved picnic featuring local products with a walk among the ventilated cellars of Cevio Vecchio. The basic picnic includes two sandwiches, cheese and/or salametti, a non-alcoholic drink, a dessert and a piece of fruit. Local wine, craft beer, additional cheeses and Alpine products are available on request. Check the season and availability of the offer before travelling; details may also change seasonally.
Since the Middle Ages, Piazza di Cevio has been the centre of public life and today provides a setting for concerts and theatre performances. The Pretorio was built in the mid-16th century. Frescoes from the 17th and 18th centuries on its façade depict the coats of arms of the Swiss cantons and successive landvogt families.
The Chiesa della Rovana, also known as Santa Maria del Ponte, was built in 1651 and has been a destination for pilgrimages and religious devotion for centuries. The Baroque church is richly decorated with 17th-century stucco and frescoes, most of which are attributed to Isidoro Bianchi. The parish church of San Giovanni Battista offers another glimpse into the past: the parish of Cevio certainly existed before the 13th century, while the church is first mentioned indirectly in 1253. Remains of a single-nave Romanesque church with a small, east-facing semicircular apse were found beneath its portico.
Even smaller buildings show how agriculture and design come together in Cevio. The Grotto del Sole is a small building for storing produce from farming and livestock rearing. Above the door is a fresco featuring a multicoloured floral motif, while the east gable bears a painted sun motif.
Activities and Landscape
The Percorso Vita is a 2.6-kilometre outdoor fitness trail with 15 stations, starting at the school centre. The region can also be explored from Cevio via numerous hiking trails and mountain biking routes. Its landscape is shaped by forests, meadows and fields as well as mountainous areas.
The townscape includes numerous buildings with small courtyards; many houses are old stone buildings dating from the 18th century. The river embankments also shape the surroundings: the dams built in the 19th century extend for a total of 1,660 metres. Another 600 metres consist of other river protection structures. This distinction helps separate the length of the dams themselves from the other river protection works.
Discover more destinations: Menzonio, Cavergno, Lodano, Campo, Lavizzara, Bosco/Gurin, Linescio, Maggia
For the overview of the wider region: Vallemaggia.
