Santa Maria Maggiore and its two hamlets of Crana and Buttogno developed separately in the course of the centuries and in 1928 they joined together to form the present municipality.
THE BEGINNING
The real growth of Santa Maria Maggiore started approximately in the 1960s, when several measures were taken in Valle Vigezzo in order to exploit its great possibilities to become a popular tourist destination. Different buildings and facilities for tourists began to be built in those years.
All the villages of the valley were involved in this development and since then Santa Maria Maggiore has greatly improved.
Since the beginning of this new millennium it has become a modern town and the centre of the whole Valle Vigezzo. Santa Maria Maggiore provides a great variety of tourist services and facilities: volleyball and tennis courts, a riding-school, a camping, a cross-country ski centre, landing area for helicopters, paragliding and gliders, a cinema-theatre, museums. It is the seat of CAI Vigezzo, Sci Club Vigezzo, Fondazione Gennari and ASL.
In 2000 the “Pineta” (pinewood) was modernized with different facilities (mini-golf, tennis courts, a summer swimming-pool, picnic area with barbecue, etc.) and new car parking and garages were built in the area of Piazza Mercato.
“Centro Culturale Vecchio Municipio” was restored in 2004, while “Museo dello Spazzacamino” was renovated in 2005. The cinema/theatre was modernized, too. In 2013 a wide golf course was completed in the area of Pineta. However the development of Santa Maria Maggiore as an important tourist resort has not finished yet: other projects will be completed in next years, as for example “Casa del Profumo”, a new exhibition centre that is going to be realized in Piazza Risorgimento.
THE DEVELOPMENT
You can find here doctors, dentists and notaries. In the centre of the town there are restaurants, cafés, hotels, elegant boutiques, shops of local wine and food products, a little local textile workshop, jeweller’s shops, and a lot of different other shops.