Carona, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Carona is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the district of Lugano
Lugano (district)
The district of Lugano is a district of Canton Ticino, Switzerland. It has a population of .-Geography:The Lugano District has an area, , of . Of this area, or 15.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 66.5% is forested...

 in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

History

Carona is first mentioned in 926 as Calauna.

During the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 Carona and Ciona (first mentioned in 1213) formed a Kastlanei of the Bishop of Como
Roman Catholic Diocese of Como
The Catholic diocese of Como, in northern Italy, has existed since the fourth century. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Milan. The bishops' seat is in Como Cathedral....

. The village's possessions also included the still existing church of Santa Maria in Torello. After 1349, the church was supported by a community of Augustinians
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

 Canons
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 from the nearby monastery (built in 1217 by Guglielmo Della Torre). For the village's loyalty to the Visconti
House of Visconti
Visconti is the family name of two important Italian noble dynasties of the Middle Ages. There are two distinct Visconti families: The first one in the Republic of Pisa in the mid twelfth century who achieved prominence first in Pisa, then in Sardinia where they became rulers of Gallura...

 and Guelph
Guelphs and Ghibellines
The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...

 families, it received its own coat of arms. According to Swiss Confederation
Old Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....

 law, it enjoyed a special status (terra separata) which included exemption from certain laws and taxes. The old, medieval statutes were renewed in 1470.

Since 1427, it has formed an independent parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

. The parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 of San Giorgio was built above an older, romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 church (which was first mentioned in 1425). The church of S. Marta was built in the 14th century, and was formerly known as the Church of SS Pietro e Paolo. The Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

 church of Madonna d'Ongero was built in 1624, to the west of the village in the forest. The church of S. Maria delle Grazie was built in Ciona. The last two churches as well as the homes of the village from the 17th and 18th Centuries represent the growing wealth of the village, through emigration of artists from Carona. The Carona artist families, including the Aprile, Casella, Scala and Solari families, were active throughout Europe during the 15th-18th Centuries.

The village remained an agricultural and grazing village until the beginning of the 19th Century, when Lugano
Lugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...

 developed into a tourist destination. In 1943, the S. Grato hill was cleared and farming began on the hill. However, the buildings were later converted into a vacation complex. After centuries of decline, the population doubled in the 1970s and 80s, as new homes were built outside the historic core village. In 2000 21% of the population spoke German. There is a major swimming pool and sports center, that serve the surrounding communities.

Geography

Carona has an area, , of 4.75 square kilometres (1.8 sq mi). Of this area, 0.46 km² (0.177606992952566 sq mi) or 9.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.02 km² (1.6 sq mi) or 84.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.57 km² (0.220078230397745 sq mi) or 12.0% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.06 km² (14.8 acre) or 1.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 7.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.5%. Out of the forested land, 80.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 2.5% is used for growing crops and 7.2% is used for alpine pastures.

The municipality is located in the Lugano district, between the S. Salvatore and Arbostora mountains near Lake Lugano
Lake Lugano
Lake Lugano is a glacial lake in the south-east of Switzerland, at the border between Switzerland and Italy. The lake, named after the city of Lugano, is situated between Lake Como and Lago Maggiore...

. It consists of the village of Carona and the hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Ciona and Torello.

Coat of arms

The blazon
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...

 of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is Azure a church argent with widowns and doors gules on a clif of the second issuant from a lake proper in the base.

Demographics

Carona has a population of . , 19.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 10.1%.

Most of the population speaks Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 (69.8%), with German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 being second most common (21.0%) and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 being third (4.0%). Of the Swiss national languages , 143 speak German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, 19 people speak French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, 475 people speak Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

. The remainder (44 people) speak another language.

, the gender distribution of the population was 46.5% male and 53.5% female. The population was made up of 276 Swiss men (35.7% of the population), and 84 (10.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 342 Swiss women (44.2%), and 72 (9.3%) non-Swiss women.

In there were 6 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 Swiss man who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 6 non-Swiss men and 3 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 4 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of -0.1%.

The age distribution, , in Carona is; 79 children or 10.2% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 64 teenagers or 8.3% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 99 people or 12.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 79 people or 10.2% are between 30 and 39, 134 people or 17.3% are between 40 and 49, and 130 people or 16.8% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 110 people or 14.2% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 46 people or 5.9% are between 70 and 79, there are 33 people or 4.3% who are over 80.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.51 which is less people per room than the cantonal average of 0.6 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 50.8% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

 or a rent-to-own agreement).

, there were 298 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. there were 292 single family homes (or 80.0% of the total) out of a total of 365 inhabited buildings. There were 41 two family buildings (11.2%) and 21 multi-family buildings (5.8%). There were also 11 buildings in the municipality that were multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose).

The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. there were 505 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 5 room apartment of which there were 174. There were 20 single room apartments and 174 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 297 apartments (58.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 194 apartments (38.4%) were seasonally occupied and 14 apartments (2.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.6 new units per 1000 residents.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Church of Della Madonna D’Ongero, the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 of SS. Giorgio e Andrea with a community center and the Complex of S. Maria Assunta di Torello are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

. The village of Carona and the settlements of Ciona and Torello are listed as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...

.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...

 the most popular party was the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 which received 33.52% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 (23.68%), the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 (14.29%) and the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (10.18%). In the federal election, a total of 232 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 was 44.9%.

In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 518 registered voters in Carona, of which 280 or 54.1% voted. 2 blank ballots were cast, leaving 278 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PS
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 which received 73 or 26.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 (with 62 or 22.3%), the SSI (with 36 or 12.9%) and the Greens
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (with 32 or 11.5%).

In the Consiglio di Stato election, 1 blank ballot and 2 null ballots were cast, leaving 277 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PS which received 84 or 30.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 58 or 20.9%), the SSI (with 37 or 13.4%) and the LEGA (with 36 or 13.0%).

Economy

, Carona had an unemployment rate of 3.07%. , there were 2 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 1 business involved in this sector. 7 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 41 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 18 businesses in this sector. There were 301 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.5% of the workforce.

, there were 35 workers who commuted into the municipality and 219 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 25.7% of the workforce coming into Carona are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.1% used a private car.

, there was one hotel in Carona.

Religion

From the , 402 or 59.0% were Roman Catholic, while 83 or 12.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

. There are 161 individuals (or about 23.64% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 35 individuals (or about 5.14% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Carona about 81% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

In Carona there were a total of 98 students . The Ticino education system
Education in Switzerland
The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system mainly to the cantons...

 provides up to three years of non-mandatory kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

and in Carona there were 4 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the municipality, 39 students attended the standard primary schools and 1 student attended the special school. In the lower secondary school system, students either attend a two year middle school followed by a two year pre-apprenticeship or they attend a four year program to prepare for higher education. There were 23 students in the two year middle school, while 15 students were in the four year advanced program.

The upper secondary school includes several options, but at the end of the upper secondary program, a student will be prepared to enter a trade or to continue on to a university or college. In Ticino, vocational students may either attend school while working on their internship or apprenticeship (which takes three or four years) or may attend school followed by an internship or apprenticeship (which takes one year as a full-time student or one and a half to two years as a part-time student). There were 6 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 9 who attend part-time.

The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields. There was 1 student in the professional program.

, there were 116 students from Carona who attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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