By Albin Leo Dittli
While doing some family history yesterday I discovered that my 9 great grand farther, Bartholome Gerig, was a bailiff at Bellenz, around 1590. So I did some internet research to discover where Bellenz was and what a bailiff was. First I discovered a small article which told me Bellenz is the German name for Bellenzona. Then I discovered a larger article from an old book book that is on the internet. It told that the Swiss occupied Bellenzona starting about 1500. The Swiss occupied three castles in Belenzona. One of the castles was run by a bailiff, or governor, from Uri. Bartholome Gerig was born about 1557. Both of these article are below.
Bellinzona (German:Bellenz) town (1993 pop. 17,100), capital of Ticino canton, S Switzerland, on the Ticino River, near the Italian border. It is a picturesque old town and a hub of transalpine traffic. Tourism is the main economic factor, but there are small industries. Possibly a Roman settlement, Bellinzona belonged at times to Lombardy, Como, Milan, France, and the Four Forest Cantons. In 1798 it became the capital of the Bellinzona canton under the Helvetic Republic, and the capital of Ticino in 1803. The town is dominated by three castles (13th-15th century) of the dukes of Milan.
A hand-book for travellers in Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont ... By John Murray, Published 1838, pages 216-218
At Grono the Val Calanca opens out from the W. St. Vittore is the last village in the Canton of the Grisons ; below it we enter the Canton Tessin and the Val Levantina, and our road joins that descending from the St. Gothard (Route 34). Between the junction of the two rivers Moesa and Ticino stands Arbtdo, memorable in history for the severe defeat which the Swiss sustained here from the Milanese, commanded by the celebrated generals Delia Pérgola and Carmagnola, in 1422. Near the Church of St. Paul, called Chiesa Rossa, from its red colour, 2000 Swiss lie buried under 3 large mounds, still distinguishable. Defeat was at that period so unusual to the Swiss, even from a greatly superior force, that they retired across the Alps abashed and discouraged. Roveredo—[inn: Post, IICanone d'Oro)—a village containing nearly 1000 inhabitants, with the ruined castle of Trivulzio in its vicinity. The Prior of Roveredo and 11 old women were burnt for practising witchcraft by Carlo Borromeo, in 1583, at his first visitation of the diocese. The rivers hereabouts are used to float down the timber cut in the forests of the higher transverse valleys.
The distant aspect of Bellinzo surrounded by battlemented walls, winch once tretched quite across the valley, and overhung by no less than 3 feudal castles, is exceedingly imposing and picturesque. It looks as though it still commanded (as it once did) the passage of the valley. The luxuriance of vegetation, and the magnificent forms of the mountains around, complete the grandeur of the picture.
Bellinzona, situated on the 1. bank of the Ticino, and containing 1520 inhabitants, is one of the 3 chief towns of the Canton Tessin, and becomes the seat of government alternately with Lugano and Locarno, fur 6 years together. It has all the character of an Italian town in its narrow and dirty streets, and in the arcades which run under its houses. It stretches all across the valley to the river, so that the only passage up or down lies through its gates. It is still a place of some commercial importance as an entrepot for the merchandise of Germany and Italy, and from its situation at the point of union of 4 roads—from the St. Gothard, the Bernardin, from Lugano, and from Locarno on the Lago Maggioie. In ancient times, however, it was of still greater military consequence, as the key of the passage from Lombardy into Germany, and defended as it was by 3 forts and high walls, it must have been a place of great strength. It became the fruitful cause of intrigue, contest, and bloodshed between the crafty Italians and the encroaching Swiss. The latter first obtained possession of it, and of the Val Levantine, by a nominal bargain of 2400 florins paid to the Lord of Masox, and they obtained from the Emperor Sigismund a confirmation of their title. The Duke of Milan, Phillip Maria Visconti, whose ancestors had lost this territory, by no means acquiesced 1 Bellinzona (Germ: Bellenz)— (Inns : Aquila d'Oro, tolerable ; Cerva, stag ; Biscia, serpent : none very good or clean.)
From the beginning of the 16th to the end of the 18th century the Swiss maintained uninterrupted possession of Bellinzona, governing its territory, as a state subject to the cantons, with a rule as tyrannic as that of the absolute Dukes of Milan, their predecessors. in this transfer, and, seizing a favourable opportunity, surprised the Swiss garrison of Bellinzona by a Milanese force under Delia Pergola, and took possession of the town and valley. It was this event which led to the battle of Arbedo, in which the Swiss received so severe a check. They afterwards twice gained possess'on of Bellinzona and its subject valleys by hard-fighting, "by the help of God and their halberts," as they boastingly proclaimed, first from the Duke of Milan, and next from the French, who, in the reign of Louis XII., obtained temporary possession of these valleys.
The three picturesque Castles which still seem to domineer over the town, though partly in ruins, were the residence of the 3 Swiss bailiff's deputed to govern the district, and were occupied by a garrison and armed with some pieces of cannon. The largest, called Castello Grande, on an isolated hill to the W. of the town, belonged to canton Uri, and now series as an arsenal and prison. Of the two castles on the E. the lower one, Castello di Mezzo, belonged to canton Schwytz, and the highest of all, Castelle Corbario, to Unterwalden; they are both unoccupied. The view from Castello Grande is very striking. A long bridge is here thrown over the river Ticino, which, however, in summer is shrunk to 3 or 4 of the arches. The banks are guarded against sudden inundations by a strong dyke called Tondo Ripario. constructed by the French under Francis I.
There remains little else to particularise here. The principal church, in the square, is a handsome modern building faced with white marble, and has a pulpit ornamented with historical bas-relief's. There are several convents here. The Church of S. Bioffgio (St. Blaize), in the suburb Ravecchia, outside the Lugano gate, is said to be very ancient.
Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=_AoIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=bellenz&source=web&ots=fcNdURVZKf&sig=pt4hvihEL3Jar2Sth7pF50YcFgU
Here is some more Swiss history from the same book. There is no doubt that we had ancestors who fought in the battle mentioned in this passage, from page 190 of the book.
About 2 miles W. of Rothenthurm, on the confines of the canton of Zug, and on the margin of the small lake of Kgeri, is MORGARTEN, memorable in Swiss annals as the scene of their first struggle for independence, as the spot where the chivalry of Austria was worsted, and their leader, Duke Leopold, compelled to fly with disgrace, on the 15th of November, 1315, 8 years after the expulsion of the Austrian bailiffs. Fired with The the hope of revenge and with feelings of hereditary hatred, the duke led on his mail-clad cavalry along the narrow strand between the lake and the hills. Just where the ascent into the upland country of Schwytz commences, running up a narrow defile, the Austrians were met by the confederates, a mere handful of men in comparison with their host, but of hardy frame and resolute spirit, posted on the ridge of the Sattel, near Haselmatt. The first bold charge of the Swiss, rushing on with swords and clubs, was aided by a discharge of rocks from the heights above, which quickly threw into confusion the ranks of heavy-armed knights. They attempted to fall back, but their evolutions were prevented by the infantry pressing on in their rear. Without room to manœuvre, or even to turn (for the naturally confined margin of the lake was at that time diminished by an unusual increase of its waters), the proud knights were totally at the mercy of their light-armed foes. Many, in order to escape the sword, perished by plunging into the lake; the rush of the cavalry overwhelmed the infantry behind, and in a short while the whole army was thrown into panic and disorder. The Austrians lost the flower of their nobility, and Leopold with difficulty escaped. This astounding victory, the Marathon of Swiss history, was gained in an hour and a half, over a force of 20,000 well-armed men, by 1300 mountaineers, who now for the first time met an army in the field.
Another item of interest in the book concerns William Tell. On the shore of Lake Lucerne is an open chapel called the Tells Platte or Tell’s Chapel. It is at the place where William Tell escaped from the boat when he was a prisoner after the famous incident of shooting the apple off of his son’s head. When I was in Switzerland in the summer of 1969 I visited Tell’s Chapel.
The book says the Tell’s Chapel was built in 1388, only 31 years after Willian Tell died. There were 114 people in attendance at the dedication of Tell’s Chapel, all of whom personally knew William Tell. This is from page 56 of the book. In another part of the book, which I read earlier, it said that William Tell was "a native of Schachenthal, having been born in Burglen" and that he died while trying to save a child that had fallen into the swollen river.