page_title: Sonvico
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sonvico / History
caption_attribution_description: English: old Sonvico pictures Italiano: Foto di Sonvico antiche
context_page_description: Sonvico is a quarter of the city of Lugano and former municipality of the Lugano district in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 14 April 2013 the municipality of Sonvico merged into the municipality of Lugano becoming a new neighborhood. The medieval part of Sonvico village consist is an old citadel with a compacted structure full of narrow and intricate lanes.
context_section_description: Sonvico is first mentioned in 1040 as Summo Vico, from the Latin "Summus Vicus", meaning "the higher located village"
  
  Prehistoric settlement in the area are proved by the findings of a Golasecca culture grave and a plate with a northern Etruscan inscription. During the archaeologic explorations in the San Martino church, Roman and Lombard objects (including a woman's grave with a cross brooch from about 650-700 AD) were discovered. From around the 9th to 10th centuries, the villages of Sonvico, Dino and Villa (later the municipality Villa Lugano, now part of Lugano) formed a community.
caption: Original coat of arms donated by the Duchy of Milan in the 15th century
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