Cavaione and Switzerland’s last territorial expansion in 1863

10 September 2025

150 years ago, the inhabitants of Cavaione received Swiss citizenship after being stateless for twelve years. The village, located on a very steep mountainside (perhaps the steepest settlement in Switzerland), is situated above Brusio in the Valposchiavo (canton of Graubünden) and not far from Tirano in the Valtellina (Italy).

For centuries, the village was part of the Habsburg territory; it then fell under the Kingdom of Sardinia, which became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. In 1863, Switzerland and the new Kingdom of Italy agreed to draw a new border between the Valposchiavo and the Valtellina.

However, they did not (or did not want to) arrange what should happen to the 108 destitute inhabitants of the village of Cavaione. In any case, the isolated village was on Swiss territory since the border correction of 1863, but they did not receive Swiss citizenship or a Swiss passport.

In Brusio, no one was waiting for new citizens and families who would burden the budget and not pay taxes, and citizenship in Switzerland is granted through the municipality.

Only with a payment from the federal government and the canton of Graubünden did the municipality of Brusio accept the new citizens. The 108 inhabitants then received Swiss citizenship and a Swiss passport in 1875. Previously, residents could not emigrate or, for example, marry an Italian in Tirano because they lacked citizenship or a passport.

Today, only eight people permanently reside in the village, but 180 descendants and their friends are celebrating 150 years of Swiss citizenship this year, marking the last and largest territorial expansion of Switzerland since the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
And, an anecdote, a resident of Tirano regrets today that Tirano was not added to the Confederation in 1863. An exhibition in the village looks back on this history.

(Source and more information: Fondazione Cavaione; Il Grigione Italiano)