Funicular to Campo dei Fiori, Varese

The Vellone-Campo dei Fiori funicular was a funicular line that connected the Vellone Valley with the Campo dei Fiori massif, where the prestigious Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori was located. The project of a route that connected Varese with the Campo dei Fiori massif was conceived in the early twentieth century. In the same period, the construction of the Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori and the Belvedere Restaurant was started at the Monte Tre Croci locality located on the Campo dei Fiori massif at a height of about 1030 m asl, by the Società Grandi Alberghi Varesini. .
The Vellone-Campo dei Fiori funicular was built after the Vellone-Sacro Monte funicular activated in 1909, which started from the same station with its characteristic octagonal shape, located in the valley of the Vellone stream located between the Sacro Monte and Campo dei Fiori; it was connected to the underlying city of Varese by the Varese-Prima Cappella-Vellone line, which was part of the Varese tram network.
The original plan would have been to have the line arrive directly to the Grand Hotel, but an external station was preferred, as the noise of the engines would have disturbed the hotel guests. In 1910 the project was approved and the works began immediately, which were carried out quickly; the service was started on April 20, 1911.

The traffic, mainly of tourist origin, grew significantly after the First World War, with peaks that reached 133,000 visitors in August 1933. This golden period of public transport and the Varese economy stopped with the Second World War, when the facility was used to transport the wounded to and from the mountain, where the large hotel had been converted into a hospital.

After the war, the funicular fell into decline, following the failure to modernize the system itself, the reduction of the tourist flow and the spread of road transport advocated by the Municipality of Varese, until September 1953, the year in which the service was first limited "on demand" and after a few months, on August 31, canceled and replaced by a bus service.

On the side of Mount Campo dei Fiori the route of the funicular is still visible, with the relative service steps, the shelter of the departure station (Vellone) and the arrival station (Campo dei Fiori), albeit in precarious conditions. The building that housed the restaurant located near the mountain station is dilapidated. In July 2000 the funicular of the Sacro Monte was reopened and the following year a project to restore the Campo dei Fiori was presented to the press. As of 2018, the restoration work has not yet started.

The whole history of the building can be read in the monograph "Giuseppe Sommaruga (1867-1917). A progragonist of Liberty", edited by Andrea Speziali, CartaCanta editore 2017.