Switzerland, Locarno / Minusio

Minusio is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

It was here that Giovanni Antonio Marcacci (1769-1854) built La Baronata as a summer house. The building was bought by Mikhail Bakunin in 1873 with money he obtained from Carlo Cafiero. They planned that possession of the building would give Bakunin the status of a land-owner, helping him gain Swiss citizenship, and to provide premises for storing arms and providing accommodation in aid of the anarchist international.

When Bakunin's wife, Antonia Kwiatkowska, was on her way there in July 1874, her lover, Carlo Gambuzzi informed her that the house had been bought through the abuse of Cafiero's generosity.

Following a career as a revolutionary anarchist, Cafiero suffered a mental breakdown whilst in prison in Italy in 1882. He returned briefly to La Baronata, but went back to Italy once again in 1883.