Local company moves villa eight metres from its origial site

A local firm, the Iten-Bau company, whose head offices are in Morgarten, has successfully moved a building in the canton of the Ticino by eight metres, the whole operation going without a hitch.
 
The Villa Carmine, near the city centre of Bellinzona, was built in 1901. Not only was successfully moved by a few metres but turned slightly, too, in order that the site on which it stood can be developed to greater density.
 
In other words, two additional buildings and an underground garage are to be built on the site it occupied. Had the move not gone ahead, the 1,400-tonne building might well have been demolished.
 
As mentioned, this incredible feat of engineering, which went ahead at a cost of CHF 700,000, was carried out by the Rolf Iten company, who are specialists in this field.
 
Regular readers may remember that this was the company responsible for the move of the huge former industrial building alongside the railways lines in Oerlikon, not to mention the move of a tram depot in Emmenbrücke in the canton of Lucerne and that of the Teufelstein (Devil’s Stone), a huge rock weighing 2,000 tonnes in Göschenen in the canton of Uri. This had to be moved some 150 metres to enable the Gotthard road tunnel to be built.
 
Now this beautiful 110-year-old villa is to be lived in by the great-great-grandson of its architect.