The tower was designed in 1532 in a Romanesque style by Rossi and Paleari, artists from Morcote. It was completed only in 1729 with the addition of an overhead octagonal structure and a cupola.

Built on the ruins of a Lombard lookout tower around the year 1100, it was once connected to the village situated 200 meters below by two underground corridors. The castle, which overhangs the actual village, is situated on the tip of the Arbostora mountain at an altitude of 475 meters above sea level.

The church, presently the location of the elementary school, was founded around 1300 by Antoniani monks belonging to a congregation from Vienne, in France. In the two lateral chapels various frescos illustrate episodes of the lives of the Apostles and of the Sacred Family, and, above the altar, a painting illustrates the Last Judgement painted by Antonio Ripa.

The church, in a Renaissance-Baroque style, was built in many phases. During the first phase, between 1470 and 1478, a construction was erected with a nave and two side aisles in a Romanesque style having six characteristic pillars in terra cotta. In 1581, a lateral chapel dedicated to San Carlo was built. Ten years later, in front of this structure the chapel of the Crucifixion was built. During 1750 to 1758, the altar niche and two vestries were added.


Opening hours: 09.00 am - 08.00 pm

Based on the project of Arturo Maspoli, the church was built from 1548 to 1553. The Morcote people worked together and voluntarily on this construction and dedicated it to the patron saint of those infected by the plague. All of the building works, as well as the decorations, were entirely completed by the inhabitants.


Opening hours: 04.30 pm - 05.30 pm

The artisan skills of Morcote’s people, the artistic energy of their architects and the patronage of the wealthy Patrician families, influenced the architecture of the village and its religious constructions and can be admired in the terraced cemetery where these three components form a unity of nature, history and architecture.

The Oratory was built as an octagonal structure. During the 18^th Century an arcade was added, which gives the building its present aspect. Inside the oratory a fresco of Carloni illustrates in life-size the life of Christ.

Built in the Varese area (Italy) around 1700 in a very exuberant Baroque style with columns, capitals and corbels delicately inlaid and forming a rich interlacing, the organ was donated to the village by the painter Domenico Fossati. Since 1785 it has been located in the original apse of the church.

Scherrer Gardens, rich with luxurious subtropical vegetation and many kinds of buildings and art, both original and copies from all over the world, were left by Mr. Scherrer`s widow in 1965 to the village of Morcote with the desire to open them to the public. This Eden, made of an impressive subtropical flora including palm trees, camellias, wisteria and oleanders, cedar and cypress trees, camphor and eucalyptus, magnolias and azaleas, orange and lemon trees, bamboo and many other kinds of fragrant plants, attracts and fascinates every visitor. The gardens are also suitable for cultural and artistic events which have always been successful.

The arcades of the Morcote houses which are considered among the most beautiful in Ticino, were built using the columns and noble stones taken from abandoned homes of the old village and decorated together with the houses during the period from 1300 to 1500. In 1862, a landslide forced fourteen arcades sustaining the walls of seven houses to disappear into the lake.

The stairs, which may be best admired from the lake, are composed of 404 steps and are considered the most grandiose and panoramic of the pre-alpine region.
They were built in two phases. First, Davide Fossati, merchant and banker born in Morcote in 1644, asked his brother Domenico, an engineer, to project the upper part of the stairs which lead from the secular and only mule-track to the church square. The work was given to the construction company, Rossi and Isella, who completed the job in 5 years from 1727 to 1732. The stairs were then donated by Davide Fossati to the village of Morcote as a sign of gratitude to the Virgin Mary for curing his malaria disease.
The second phase which joined the first to the regional road, projected by the Ticinese politician Stefano Franscini in 1842, was built between 1861 and 1863 by Giacomo Rossi.