The village on the shores of Lake Maggiore has been inhabited since prehistoric times. In the Middle Ages, Ascona was an important market place protected by four castles. It was home to numerous families of artists.

The origin of the name of the village Ascona could be Celtic or Longobard. According to some, it goes back to the Longobard entry skugina, which means stable in Italian. More recent historiography, however, tends to consider the origin of the name Celtic: ASC-ONA, meaning ‘great pasture’. In the centre of the town stands the Catholic parish church of Santissimi Pietro e Paolo, mentioned after 1264 and rebuilt in the 16th century. In Via Bartolomeo Papio, next to the college of the same name, is the Church of Santa Maria della Misericodia, built between 1399 and 1422. Along the choir walls are scenes from the Old Testament from the 15th century, along the walls of the nave and above the triumphal arch are frescoes from the 15th-16th centuries and, at the entrance to the choir, a Renaissance polyptych by Antonio de Lagaia (1519). Next to the church is the college founded by Bartolomeo Papio and built after 1584; it has an elegant Renaissance cloister and, above the N door, a bas-relief from 1602. Next to the church is Casa Serodine, built around 1620 by Cristoforo and G. Battista Serodine. The three-storey façade is richly decorated with stucco; storied friezes and figures above the windows; the Virgin and Child in the centre. At the exit of the village, on the road leading to Losone, remains of the castle of San Materno, of which only the Romanesque chapel with a semicircular apse where a fresco depicting Christ is preserved.