The funicular railway that connected Lanzo with Santa Margherita di Valsolda, and therefore the Intelvi Valley with Lake Lugano, was designed and built by the Santa Margherita funicular company with the aim of facilitating tourism. Inaugurated in September 1907, after the golden age of Belle Epoque, the expansion of private motorization, in particular, led to such a decisive drop in passengers that it caused serious management problems so that the funicular completed its last run on 19 September 1977. Two carriages can still be seen, one at each terminus , the path and the steps of the staircase that flanked the path and was used for maintenance (currently impracticable because many of them are missing).
The small village of Santa Margherita can today only be reached by lake, which is why it has remained uninhabited; with the exception of the first Sunday in July, when every year the Valsolda proloco organizes a party that revives the streets of this ghost town, allowing the visitor to visit the places and have lunch by the lake.
For more information, watch the video edited by TVS Televallassina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnY0FIJKa-A
see also:
– In Lanzo there is a desire for a funicular, edited by Italian Swiss Radio Television (17 August 2022)
– Tourism, a new life for funiculars, edited by TGR Lombardy (July 19, 2022)
