Look to your right and spot a small, elegant round temple with eight columns and a domed roof, perched just two steps above the sidewalk-inside, you’ll see a bronze bust gazing out at you.
Welcome to the Washington Temple, the most surprising mini-monument to American independence on Swiss soil! Can you hear the hush of Lake Lugano behind you and maybe imagine a seagull or two gliding overhead? Let’s set the scene: It’s the mid-1800s, and you’re standing on what was once the lush garden of Villa Tanzina, owned by the mysterious and wildly adventurous Abbondio Chialiva. This wasn’t just any villa-it was built back in the 1700s by Count Tanzi, but by the 1830s, it had fallen into the hands of Chialiva, who was a political rebel and world traveler. Forced to flee his native Piedmont because he was mixed up with the Carbonari revolutionaries, Chialiva ended up in Mexico, where he struck it rich before bringing his fortune-and a taste for drama-back to Lugano.
Right here, Chialiva built a decorative temple around 1850, maybe at first for a graceful nymph statue or some Greco-Roman muse. But in a twist worthy of a plot from a Netflix series, he changed his mind and placed a bust of George Washington inside in 1859. And why? Well, three years earlier, just a short stroll from here, artists had put up a grand monument to Swiss freedom-fighter William Tell. Chialiva saw his new temple as the perfect counterpart: two monuments side by side, honoring bold figures in the great saga of liberty.
By the 1860s, the villa became famous in travel guides for its "little temple with the Washington bust," and soon enough, the English Nathan family bought the villa, adding their own chapter to its story. But the biggest shake-up was yet to come. In the early 1900s, Lugano was growing, and city planners wanted to turn the villa’s park into a public promenade. The villa was demolished in 1907, but-lucky you-the city left this quirky gem standing.
Now, let’s fast-forward to a dark and stormy night in October 1908. Picture the glint of moonlight, the shuffle of mischievous feet… A gang of pranksters-some local, some German-speaking-snuck up to the Washington bust, yanked it off its pedestal, and hurled it straight into Lake Lugano! The next morning, signs in three languages appeared, cheerfully claiming Washington had "left for the presidential elections." It took the bumbling police a whole month to round up these cheeky culprits, who called the whole thing a “harmless student prank.” They were fined, scolded, and ultimately let off pretty lightly-after all, their real protest was about Swiss identity and whether Washington belonged here at all!
After the drama, divers fished Washington’s bust out of the lake-good thing he can’t catch a cold-and he was restored to his post, where he’s been quietly watching generations of strollers and joggers ever since. The temple itself was spruced up in 2020, thanks to the local Freemasons, so you get to see it in all its classical glory today. Step up, imagine the echoes of Chialiva’s rebellion and a burst of laughter from those long-ago pranksters, and enjoy this most peculiar piece of Lugano’s monumental history!
