Onsernone
Encyclopedia
Onsernone 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 Swiss
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....

 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...

, near the city of Locarno
Locarno
Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000...

. The river Isorno
Isorno
Isorno is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.The municipality was created in 2001 by a merger of Auressio, Berzona and Loco.-History:...

 runs through this valley.

The municipality was created in 1995 by a merger of Comologno
Comologno
Comologno is a village and former municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.In 1995 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Crana and Russo to form a new and larger municipality Onsernone....

, Crana
Crana
Crana is a village and former municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.In 1995 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Comologno and Russo to form a new and larger municipality Onsernone....

 and Russo
Russo, Switzerland
Russo is a village and former municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.In 1995 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Comologno and Crana to form a new and larger municipality Onsernone....

.

History

Comologno is first mentioned in 1438 as Comolognium. Crana is first mentioned in 1228 as Grana and in 1265 it was mentioned as Crana. Russo is first mentioned in 1231 as de Ruxi. In 1277 it was mentioned as Rusio.

Comologno

During the Ancien Régime
Early Modern Switzerland
The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy , lasting from formal independence in 1648 to the French invasion of 1798 came to be referred as Ancien Régime retrospectively, in post-Napoleonic Switzerland.The early modern period was characterized by an increasingly...

, Comologno belonged to the Squadra of Crana, which together with the other villages of the valley (with the exception of Auressio
Auressio
Auressio is a village and former municipality in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.In 2001 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Berzona and Loco to form a new and larger municipality Isorno.-History:...

) formed the medieval
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...

 municipality of Onsernone. With the establishment of the Canton of Ticino in 1803, Comologno became an independent municipality.

Comologno 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...

 in 1715, when it separated from Russo. 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 Giovanni Battista, was built in 1668-1697.

With the emergence and development of rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...

 straw processing in the 19th Century, the population of Comologno increased rapidly. However, in the following century, the decline of farming, animal husbandry and straw craft led to a rapid population decline. Most of the working population works in industrial or service enterprises in the valley or commute to work in the agglomeration of Locarno. Many residents emigrated to other countries in search of work. Several families became wealthy in foreign countries, and used that wealth to built stately mansions in Comologno. The largest is from the Remonda family, who in the second half of the 18th Century, became wealthy in France. Another notable mansion is the Palazzo (or Castello) della Barca which was acquired in the 1930s by Vladimir Rosenbaum for his wife Aline Valangin, a writer and artist. It soon became a haven for artists and well-known anti-fascists, including Ignazio Silone
Ignazio Silone
Ignazio Silone was the pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, an Italian author and politician.-Early life and career:...

, Ernesto Rossi, Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky was a German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved to Paris in 1924 and then to Sweden in 1930.Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of...

, Hans Marchwitza
Hans Marchwitza
Hans Marchwitza was a German writer, proletarian poet, and communist.- Life :Marchwitza was the son of miner Thomas Marchwitza and his wife Thekla Maxisch, and was born in Scharley near Beuthen in Upper Silesia. Already at fourteen years old Marchwitza was working underground in the mines...

, Ernesto Bonaiuti, Max Terpis, Elias Canetti
Elias Canetti
Elias Canetti was a Bulgarian-born modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He wrote in German and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".-Life:...

, Wladimir Vogel
Wladimir Vogel
Wladimir Rudolfowitsch Vogel was a Swiss composer of German and Russian extraction.-Life:...

 and Jean-Paul Samson. Since the early 1970s, at the suggestion of the Associazione Amici di Comologno, various artists have decorated houses in the village with frescos.

Crana

During the Ancien Régime, Crana belonged to the Squadra of Crana which included the territory of Vocaglia, Comologno and Spruga, and was part of the old municipality of Onsernone. The modern village was created during the institutional changes of the Act of Mediation
Act of Mediation
The Act of Mediation was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte on 19 February 1803 establishing the Swiss Confederation. The act also abolished the previous Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Switzerland by French troops in 1798. After the withdrawal of French troops in July 1802,...

 in 1803. Crana is known for the over 5,000 holders of heimatrecht
Bürgergemeinde
The Bürgergemeinde is a statutory corporation in public law in Switzerland...

in the village. The heimatrecht is similar to place of birth
Place of birth
The place of birth is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. The place of birth is not necessarily the place where the parents of the new baby live. If the baby is born in a hospital in...

 in other countries, and the heimatort is used on Swiss passports. A person maintains their heimatort regardless of whether they have ever lived in the municipality. The reason for the high number of heimatrecht holders is that the village sold the heimatrecht, which conferred local citizenry (and thus Swiss citizenship) to help make up for the low village income.

The parish was created in 1787 when the village split away from the Russo parish. The Church of SS Peter and Paul was built in 1676.

The present population is made up of retirees and commuters who work in the Onsernone valley and in the agglomeration
Agglomeration
In the study of human settlements, an urban agglomeration is an extended city or town area comprising the built-up area of a central place and any suburbs linked by continuous urban area. In France, INSEE the French Statistical Institute, translate it as "Unité urbaine" which means continuous...

 of Locarno.

Russo

During the Ancien Régime, Russo belonged to the Squadra of Russo, part of the old municipality of Onsernone.

The parish was probably created in 1656, when it separated from Loco. It included Comologno until 1715, Vergeletto until 1757, and Crana until 1787. 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 S. Maria Assunta is first mentioned in 1365, and was renovated in 1995-2002.

Until about the mid-20th Century, agriculture, animal husbandry and straw plaiting were the main sources of income in the village. This was supplemented by the traditional seasonal migration
Transhumance in the Alps
Transhumance in the Alps, or seasonal migration between valley and high pastures is a traditional practice that has shaped much of the landscape in the Alps, as without it, most areas below 2000 m would be forests.While tourism and industry contribute today much to Alpine economy, seasonal...

. While the number of inhabitants had decreased consistently over the decades, it began increasing in the 1970s. In 1989, the opening of the Centro sociale onsernonese nursing home provided a few dozen jobs in the village.

Geography

Onsernone has an area, , of 29.86 square kilometres (11.5 sq mi). Of this area, 0.34 km² (0.131274733921462 sq mi) or 1.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 23.38 km² (9 sq mi) or 78.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.36 km² (0.138996777093313 sq mi) or 1.2% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.75 km² (0.289576618944401 sq mi) or 2.5% is either rivers or lakes and 3.48 km² (1.3 sq mi) or 11.7% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.3%. Out of the forested land, 70.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.5% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 9.1% is unproductive vegetation and 2.5% is too rocky for vegetation.

The municipality is located in the Locarno district, in the lower Onsernone valley, about 25 km (15.5 mi) from Locarno. It consists of the villages of Comologno, Crana and Russo as well as the settlements of Vocaglia, Corbella, Cappellino and Spruga. It was formed in 1995 from the three formerly independent villages. The drawn out merger process began in the 1970s.

Demographics

Onsernone has a population of . , 5.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -11.2%.

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...

 (79.5%), 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 (14.9%) and 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...

 being third (4.0%). Of the Swiss national languages , 48 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....

, 13 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...

, 256 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 (5 people) speak another language.

, the gender distribution of the population was 47.5% male and 52.5% female. The population was made up of 134 Swiss men (45.4% of the population), and 6 (2.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 145 Swiss women (49.2%), and 10 (3.4%) non-Swiss women.

In there were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 5 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 non-Swiss man 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 an increase of 1 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 2 people. This represents a population growth rate of -0.3%.

The age distribution, , in Onsernone is; 14 children or 4.7% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 23 teenagers or 7.8% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 30 people or 10.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 19 people or 6.4% are between 30 and 39, 34 people or 11.5% are between 40 and 49, and 61 people or 20.7% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 48 people or 16.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 34 people or 11.5% are between 70 and 79, there are 32 people or 10.8% who are over 80.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.6 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 71.4% 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 147 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2. persons per household. there were 337 single family homes (or 75.7% of the total) out of a total of 445 inhabited buildings. There were 61 two family buildings (13.7%) and 27 multi-family buildings (6.1%). There were also 20 buildings in the municipality that were multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose).

The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.85%. there were 582 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 3 room apartment of which there were 150. There were 86 single room apartments and 90 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 147 apartments (25.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 429 apartments (73.7%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (1.0%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents.

The historical population is given in the following table:
Year Population
Comologno
Population
Crana
Population
Russo
1719 182 - -
1795 253 134 206
1808 333 138 239
1850 440 185 302
1900 624 303 248
1950 477 134 121
1960 281 87 -
1970 - - 84
1990 142 49 136
Onsernone
2000 322

Heritage sites of national significance

The Palazzo Della Barca is listed as a 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 villages of Comologno and Russo are 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 29.95% 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....

 (27%), 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...

 (16.98%) and the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 (12.62%). In the federal election, a total of 116 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 30.3%.

In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 312 registered voters in Onsernone, of which 131 or 42.0% voted. 1 blank ballot and 1 null ballot was cast, leaving 129 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 44 or 34.1% 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 27 or 20.9%), the SSI (with 26 or 20.2%) and the LEGA
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...

 (with 17 or 13.2%).

In the Consiglio di Stato election, 1 null ballot was cast, leaving 130 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PS which received 43 or 33.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 26 or 20.0%), the PLRT (with 26 or 20.0%) and the LEGA (with 22 or 16.9%).

Economy

, Onsernone had an unemployment rate of 3.18%. , there were 13 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 16 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 90 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 13 businesses in this sector. There were 124 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 32.3% of the workforce.

, there were 32 workers who commuted into the municipality and 44 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 12.5% of the workforce coming into Onsernone are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 6.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 50% used a private car. , there was one hotel in Onsernone.

Religion

From the , 232 or 72.0% were Roman Catholic, while 18 or 5.6% 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...

. There are 58 individuals (or about 18.01% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 14 individuals (or about 4.35% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Onsernone about 68.7% 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 Onsernone there were a total of 36 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 Onsernone there were 5 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the village, 10 students attended the standard primary schools and 2 students 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 9 students in the two year middle school, while 1 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 2 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 6 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 15 students from Onsernone who attended schools outside the municipality.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK