Audio Archive 1962-2003
The City Parliament of Lugano was established in 1900. Previously, the legislative body was represented by the Communal Assembly (i.e., the meeting of all citizens with political rights in municipal matters).
In the 1960s, audio recordings of sessions began, primarily to facilitate the drafting of minutes and address disputes regarding their content. The collection of recordings is part of the general documentation related to the sessions of the City Parliament and has so far been stored in the Archivio amministrativo (Municipal Archive).
In 2021, a project for the digitization and documentation of this audio heritage (comprising 454 magnetic tapes) was launched in collaboration with the Swiss National Sound Archives and with the support of the Memoriav association and the Divisione della cultura e degli studi universitari del Cantone Ticino (Division of Culture and University Studies of the Canton of Ticino).
The collection was permanently deposited with the Sound Archives at the end of 2020 and is freely accessible online through a dedicated portal, where new recordings are continuously added as they are documented. In February 2023, the 200th recording was published. The project will be completed by the end of 2024 and will also be available in the Memoriav catalog and on the cultural heritage portal of the Canton of Ticino, Sàmara.
Historical examples
The archive collects the voices of all Councillors as well as the members of the City Council who spoke during the sessions up to 2003. This allows rediscovering political orientations on topics that remain highly relevant today but were already discussed decades ago in the Legislative Chamber (depicted in the photo by Vincenzo Vicari), through the voices of those who actively engaged in the city's politics. Below, a selection of excerpts from sessions held between 1963 and 1976 is presented.
While listening to the recordings, it is important to keep in mind that these are recordings made with non-professional equipment for purposes related to drafting meeting minutes: they were never intended for public distribution, and at times, speakers were not in close proximity to the microphone, which may result in low audio quality. This issue is evident even in the case of unforeseen events: on 28 May 1973, the Mayor's response to a question about the Angioli Funicular was interrupted by music being played at that time in Piazza della Riforma.
Audio recordings in Italian
10 giugno 1963 - Feruccio Pelli fa il punto sulla situazione della Ferrovia Lugano-Cadro-Dino
27 giugno 1963 - Paride Pelli parla di autonomia comunale
5 luglio 1967 - Arturo Gusberti e Ferruccio Pelli sulla posizione delle panchine sul lungolago
5 luglio 1971 - Lorenzo Gilardoni e Ferruccio Pelli sulle sirene dei battelli
27 novembre 1972 - Iva Cantoreggi si oppone al progetto di variante al PR che consente di creare cucine senza finestre
27 novembre 1972 - Pier Mario Creazzo in risposta a Cantoreggi sulle cucine
28 maggio 1973 - Arnoldo Gianella e Ferruccio Pelli su Funicolare degli Angioli con musica del concerto
7 ottobre 1976 - Giovanni Orelli e Ferruccio Pelli discutono sulla censura di "Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma" di Pasolini
15 dicembre 1986 - Adriano Censi evidenzia le condizioni di degrado del Parco Ciani
4 maggio 1992 - Mariuccia Ghiringhelli, prima donna eletta presidente del Legislativo, tiene il suo discorso di insediamento
30 giugno 1992 - Marco Borradori risponde all'interpellanza di Angelo Paparelli sull'ex centrale termica di Cornaredo
Other examples in the catalog
In addition to the excerpts presented above, other topics can be discovered in the Fonoteca catalog. For instance, as early as the 1960s, discussions were held on the need to promote a policy of moderate-rent housing, as well as on the Lugano-Agno Airport, which played a fundamental role in the cantonal mobility network and has frequently been the subject of political debate. Lastly, another recording of historical value is the first interpellation, dated 1965, concerning the intentions of the Lugano City Council regarding the former Palace Hotel, a complex that has since become the site of the LAC.
This page was partially created with the help of automatic tools and may contain errors and omissions. The original version is the page in Italian.