As already briefly mentioned on the page of Presentation and Historical Notes, our municipality owes its name to the castle (Castellum Sancti Petri) which was erected around 1100 A.D. and was destroyed in the early 1500s A.D. during the war between the Confederates and Milan. This castle stood overhanging the Breggia River. In the immediate vicinity of the castle walls, a church, the present Church of St. Peter (better known as the "Red Church"), was built in 1343. This church, with its wall paintings, ranks among the protected national properties.

The Red Church, however, is not the only religious building in our territory. The Parish Church (St. Eusebio Church) for example, with its immense artistic heritage, is one of the most beautiful churches in our entire region and a living testimony to the emigration of local artists (the Bernasconi, the Carabelli, the Fontana, the Magni, the Pozzi and others) who around 1600 A.D. emigrated abroad in search of fortune, especially to Italy and Germany. When they returned home, often during the winter season, they devoted themselves with passion and verve to decorating the interior of the church. An artistic heritage of unquestionable value.

But our entire municipal area, from the town center to the individual hamlets and even the individual villages on the right bank of the Muggio Valley, is rich in churches, oratories and chapels. Places of worship that give a good idea of how faith was an important and well-rooted component of the population.  The works we see and admire in these places today are living testimony of this for our generation and future generations.

But Castel San Pietro and its splendid and varied territory, which stretches from the Breggia Gorge Park to the summit of Monte Generoso, also offers visitors an innumerable number of cultural/landscape itineraries and walks outside the places of worship. Every nook and cranny, from the closest to the village center to the most distant, hides within itself a history of culture or simply stories of people of the past who, among a thousand labors, shaped and left to us this splendid territory. Sometimes it is really difficult to separate history, culture and tradition. As evidence of this it is enough to say that several books have been written about our municipality, its territory, its people and its traditions.

The time that ... "at one time ran slow," was a harbinger and helped us pause and appreciate the cultural and scenic beauties around us. Nowadays he "runs faster ... too fast" and unfortunately this does not help us to dwell as much as we should (or would like to).

The invitation we make to you is therefore to "take time" to dive into our territory and admire and appreciate all its peculiarities.