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# Pura commune (Ticino canton, Switzerland)

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Last modified: 2026-04-25 by martin karner
Keywords: pura |
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See also:

- Lugano district
- Ticino canton
- Switzerland

## Pura

image by Pascal Gross

To digress somewhat, I once fired a matchlock musket, and of course, watched it being loaded – and a very time-consuming process it was as well. First the shooter had to remove the burning match from its holder, then prime the pan with a pinch of powder and close it. Then he put the butt on the ground and poured a full charge of that same powder (a 16th century person would use two different grades of powder) down the barrel, followed by an over-powder wad, followed by the ball and a further wad. He then replaced the burning match to its holder, opened the pan and raising the gun to his shoulder he pulled the trigger, lowering the match onto the priming powder which then exploded igniting the main charge and sending the ball down-range. The whole business took very nearly a minute, and that was a smoothbore – a rifled barrel would take even longer – and of course, gun battles of this period (c1450–c1690) couldn't happen in the rain.
Or two matchlocks Sable in saltire in chief a sieve and in base a bugle-horn both Azure garnished of the Second.
Christopher Southworth

Pura was hunting ground of the von Beroldingen family, colours of their arms has been taken over together with the hunting symbols.
Pascal Gross, 14 July 2003

The von Beroldingen family had their ancestral seat in Beroldingen, a fraction of Seelisberg in the canton of Uri.