The ruined village of Prada poses numerous puzzles. When was it built? How did its residents live? And most importantly: why was it abandoned? What is certain is that the settlement of Prada, located halfway up the mountain (577 m above sea level), belonged, together with Ravecchia, to the municipality of Bellinzona.
It had been inhabited since the Middle Ages (first mentioned in 1381) and in 1583 was still home to 40 families (160 to 200 people) who enjoyed the same rights and privileges as the city's residents, including participation in the meetings of the Bellinzona City Council. In the first half of the 17th century the village was abandoned for unknown reasons. Several reasons are suspected for this, including a plague epidemic that raged in the area between 1629 and 1630, as well as adverse weather conditions. In Prada you can see over 30 ruins of buildings that were originally up to three stories high. They have been preserved to this day thanks to a sophisticated construction technique in which the edges of the building were reinforced with larger, angular stones, using lime mortar as a binding agent.
The house walls were plastered on the inside, while on the outside they probably had joint plaster with exposed stone heads. The roofs were mainly built as a gable roof construction and covered with slab gneiss, while the floors were made of wood. In the village there are several groups of houses built together, which are reminiscent of modern terraced houses. In this distinctive form, this special feature can only be found in Prada. The Prada Foundation has therefore set itself the goal of highlighting this peculiarity in the course of the fortification work that it plans to carry out shortly on some of the buildings in the medieval settlement, together with information about the life of the villagers. Also planned is the restoration of one of the best-preserved buildings, the missing parts of which will be completed so that it can be used as an informative and didactic center.