History

The municipality of Monteceneri was born in November 2010 following the aggregation of the former municipalities of Bironico, Camignolo, Medeglia, Rivera and Sigirino.
Its present territory traces that of the ancient Carvina valley, leaving out the municipalities of Mezzovico-Vira and Isone. This valley has been inhabited for more than two millennia by people deeply attached to their land. In fact, at the current state of archaeological findings, the first human settlements in the Carvina date back to the 6th century B.C., during the Iron Age, in the upper valley, sheltered from the destructive force of the waters due to the frequent overflows of the Vedeggio and Leguana rivers, which made these lands inhospitable.
The necropolises that came to light fortuitously in the first half of the 20th century in the Isone area and at the foot of the "Caslaccio" promontory in Rivera, near the Monte Ceneri pass, are testimony to this.
For centuries the people of this land have lived sustaining themselves by hunting, freshwater fishing, agriculture, cattle and goat breeding with the related summer transhumance on the numerous mountain pastures, then, after their introduction by the Romans, chestnuts became the main food on the table, also useful as fodder for farm animals.

Place of passage
Since time immemorial this valley has played the role of a place of passage, being on the transit route from the Po Valley to the passes of the Central Alps.
The first real paved road in the Carvina valley was built by the Romans probably following the route of an ancient protohistoric track that passed mid-mountain on the right bank of the Vedeggio River, from south to north through the villages of Sigirino, Mezzovico-Vira and Rivera and then to Monte Ceneri. Four different routes could be followed from here: the two main roads led to Cadenazzo, one steep and straight, the other with easier hairpin bends, and then headed toward Bellinzona and the Alpine passes; a third, improperly called the "Roman road," descended to Quartino and then continued to the Locarno area; and the fourth from the Monte Ceneri pass, at "alla Guardia," descended to Robasacco via the church of San Leonardo.
Another route that grazed the Carvina valley was the one that from Capriasca reached Isone, climbed to the Tiglio pass and then descended to Giubiasco and Bellinzona.
In the last two centuries, impressive engineering works have been carried out in order to increasingly improve and speed up connections across the Alps, starting with the Gotthard Railway that came into operation in 1882, up to the opening in 1980 of the A2 highway and today's AlpTransit construction site.

Border territory/fortifications
Another fundamental role, played especially in ancient times by this region, is that of a border area. Indeed, as early as the Iron Age (11th-1st centuries BC), Mount Ash divided the two tribes of Celtic lineage of the Leponzi, located to the north, and the Orobi, stationed to the south.
But it was with the arrival of the Romans that the strategic importance of a military and road character of the Carvina increased; the Emperor Augustus (1st century BC) placed on Mount Ceneri the border between two worlds: to the north lay the Celtic Raetia and to the south the XI Regio Transpadana of the Roman Empire.
In Late Antiquity (early 5th century AD), due to the constant pressure of barbarian peoples, Emperor Honorius had the Tractus Italiae circa Alpes built, a defensive system consisting of a capillary network of fortifications placed at the southern outlets of the Alpine valleys, thus blocking the most important strategic nodes. For the Vedeggio valley, there are records of the presence in ancient times of 13 castles, of which seven are located in Carvina alone (Isone, Monte Ceneri, Rivera, Bironico, Camignolo, two in Sigirino) and whose ruins can still be seen in the bush.
The morphology of the valley must have favored the rise of these fortified structures; in fact, they are all located on rocky promontories naturally defended by sheer walls, visually connected to each other and placed at strategic points in the valley.
With the end of the Roman Empire, these defensive structures were abandoned, until the arrival of the Lombards (late 6th-8th centuries), who reoccupied them: the Carvina thus became a place of military appropriations headed by Bironico.

The historical information reported here is taken from the unpublished degree thesis in Cultural Heritage Science at the University of Pavia by Laura Pianezzi, Vallis Carvyne - Archaeological map of the Vedeggio Valley and ancient history of its upper part, which can be obtained from the Municipal Chancellery.