Iragna
Encyclopedia
Iragna 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 Riviera
Riviera (district)
The district of Riviera is a district of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It has a population of . The capital of the district is Biasca.-Geography:...

 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

Iragna is first mentioned in 1210 as Inagna.

Iragna was one of the ten village cooperatives (Vicini), which formed the municipality of Levantine. It belonged to the valley community in 1441 when the entire Levantine along with Lodrino
Lodrino, Switzerland
Lodrino is a municipality in the district of Riviera in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.-History:Lodrino is first mentioned in 857 as Ludrini. In 1193 it was mentioned as Ludrino....

 and its 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...

 were conquered by Uri
Canton of Uri
Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri...

. At that time Iragna became part of the Vicariate of the dukes of Milan. Under Milan, the long-established citizens of the village were allowed to select their own bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...

. In the first half of the 17th Century the population of Iragna was involved in a series of witch trials
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...

.

The church of SS Eusebio e Gaudenzio has been in use since 1210.

Since Iragna was on a road that offered an alternative route to the traditional trans-alpine route through Biasca
Biasca
Biasca is a town of the district of Riviera in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.-History:Biasca is first mentioned in 830 as Aviasca in the Liber viventium of Pfäfers Abbey. In 1119 it was mentioned as Abiasca.-Early history:...

, it possessed a travellers hospice starting in 1288. The hospice was supported and directed by the hospice in Pollegio.

Iragna's chestnut forests were used to provide wood to residents of the middle and upper Leventina. Granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 mining has been a major source of income since the end of the 19th Century.

Geography

Iragna has an area, , of 18.39 square kilometres (7.1 sq mi). Of this area, 0.81 km² (0.312742748459953 sq mi) or 4.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 12.33 km² (4.8 sq mi) or 67.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.75 km² (0.289576618944401 sq mi) or 4.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.29 km² (0.111969625991835 sq mi) or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and 3.63 km² (1.4 sq mi) or 19.7% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.3% of the area Out of the forested land, 53.8% of the total land area is heavily forested, while 11.4% is covered in small trees and shrubbery and 1.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.2% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 11.5% is unproductive vegetation and 8.3% is too rocky for vegetation.

The municipality is located in the Riviera district, on the right bank of the Ticino river.

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 Vert a tau cross inverted wavy between two bells or.

Demographics

Iragna has a population of . , 21.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 11.6%. Most of the population speaks Italian language
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...

 (449 or 91.4%), 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 (12 or 2.4%) and Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...

 being third (9 or 1.8%). There are 3 people who 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...

 and 1 person who speaks Romansh.

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. The population was made up of 203 Swiss men (35.7% of the population), and 74 (13.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 242 Swiss women (42.6%), and 49 (8.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 199 or about 40.5% were born in Iragna and lived there in 2000. There were 134 or 27.3% who were born in the same canton, while 33 or 6.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 122 or 24.8% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 4 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens remained the same while the foreign population decreased by 2. There was 1 Swiss man who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 5 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 1 non-Swiss woman who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 3 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 6 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.5%.

The age distribution, , in Iragna is; 55 children or 9.7% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 66 teenagers or 11.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 63 people or 11.1% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 91 people or 16.0% are between 30 and 39, 100 people or 17.6% are between 40 and 49, and 70 people or 12.3% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 46 people or 8.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 54 people or 9.5% are between 70 and 79, there are 23 people or 4.0% who are over 80.

, there were 196 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 251 married individuals, 21 widows or widowers and 23 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.61 which is about equal to 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 59.5% 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 190 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 51 households that consist of only one person and 7 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 194 households that answered this question, 26.3% were households made up of just one person and 5 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 47 married couples without children, 76 married couples with children There were 8 single parents with a child or children. There were 3 households that were made up unrelated people and 4 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 163 single family homes (or 79.1% of the total) out of a total of 206 inhabited buildings. There were 28 multi-family buildings (13.6%), along with 3 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (1.5%) and 12 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.8%). Of the single family homes 2 were built before 1919, while 13 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (81) were built between 1919 and 1945.

there were 251 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 78. There were 13 single room apartments and 74 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 190 apartments (75.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 55 apartments (21.9%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (2.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.38%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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 33.79% 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....

 (22.36%), 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...

 (20.81%) and the Ticino League
Ticino League
The Ticino League is an isolationist, national conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of Ticino.In 1991, after some public campaigning in the Sunday journal Mattino della Domenica against political power and use of public money, the editor Giuliano Bignasca and the...

 (16.25%). In the federal election, a total of 150 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 44.0%.

In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 340 registered voters in Iragna, of which 215 or 63.2% voted. 3 blank ballots were cast, leaving 212 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 68 or 32.1% 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 41 or 19.3%), the SSI (with 35 or 16.5%) and the PPD
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...

+GenGiova (with 34 or 16.0%).

In the Consiglio di Stato election, The most popular party was the PS which received 76 or 35.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 42 or 19.5%), the PPD (with 35 or 16.3%) and the LEGA (with 34 or 15.8%).

Economy

, Iragna had an unemployment rate of 3.77%. , there were 20 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 99 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 13 businesses in this sector. 39 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 14 businesses in this sector. There were 239 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 35.6% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 109. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 10, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 62, of which 27 or (43.5%) were in manufacturing, 11 or (17.7%) were in mining and 24 (38.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 37. In the tertiary sector; 1 or 2.7% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 24.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 16 or 43.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 5.4% were in the information industry, 1 or 2.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 10.8% were in education.

, there were 80 workers who commuted into the municipality and 179 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 3.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 70.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 418 or 85.1% were Roman Catholic, while 3 or 0.6% 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...

. Of the rest of the population,, and there were 3 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 20 (or about 4.07% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. 29 (or about 5.91% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 18 individuals (or about 3.67% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Iragna about 177 or (36.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 28 or (5.7%) have completed 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...

). Of the 28 who completed tertiary schooling, 89.3% were Swiss men, 7.1% were Swiss women.

In Iragna there were a total of 95 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 Iragna there were 17 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the municipality, 27 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 25 students in the two year middle school, while 6 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 4 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 14 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 24 students from Iragna who attended schools outside the municipality.
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