A Serious Affair – Infantrymen from Bonaduz Posing for the Camera

In 1816, the Ticinese road builder Giulio Pocobelli crossed the San Bernardino Pass to plan a route for a pass road. Seven years later, construction of the 120-kilometre-long Commercialstrasse was completed. The journey from Chur to Bellinzona by coach now took 28 hours.

It is not known how long it took Julian Candrian, Toni Bieler and their companions from the village of Bonaduz to travel to Ticino in May 1880. However, we do know that the infantrymen from Bonaduz were mobilized due to civil unrest in the canton of Ticino.

During that time, conservatives and liberals engaged in a bloody cultural clash in Ticino. In 1876, a shootout took place in Stabio; the trial, which occurred four years later, caused a stir throughout Switzerland; the military made its presence felt. A photograph from the holdings of the Kulturarchiv Bonaduz serves as a reminder of this period. Julian Candrian, Toni Bieler and their comrades all look at the camera with an earnest expression. This, however, was the norm. At that time, smiling at the camera in the photo studio was not yet a common practice.