Tirano

Tirano stands where the Adda takes in the Poschiavino, at the meeting of the Valtellina and the Val Poschiavo, two kilometres from the Swiss border. Whoever held the castle and the walled town held the keys to the Engadine, to Lake Como, to the Empire and to the Venetian lands, and the chanceries of Paris, Vienna, Venice and Madrid all concerned themselves with it; that is why Ludovico il Moro had walls built around it. The coat of arms keeps the memory: a towered castle for the Sforza works, a black eagle for the old imperial ties.

On 29 September 1504, tradition says, the Virgin appeared in a garden to Mario Omodei and asked for a church; the sanctuary that followed became the Catholic stronghold against the Reformation coming from the Grisons. Beside it, by leave of the Grisons government, a fortnight-long international fair was held, and merchants lodged with their goods in warehouses, some still standing. On 19 July 1620 the Sacro Macello, the revolt of the Valtellina Catholics against the Protestants, began here. Tirano is now the Italian terminus of the Bernina railway.