Cevio
Cevio is the capital of the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. In 2006 Cevio grew by incorporating the villages of Bignasco and Cavergno, previously municipalities in their own right. History. Cevio was first mentioned in 1335 as "Zevio". The municipality has long been the principal town of the district. In 1858, the municipality of Linescio was separated from it. Chancellor Giovan Angelo Franzoni, who was in power for 36 years, built himself a Patrician palazzo outside the center of Cevio. After the Second World War a rapid diversification of the historical heritage began. In  1962, the Museo di Valmaggia was founded to preserve and show the material heritage of the valley. After acquisition and restoration of the Palazzo Franzoni, the first regional ethnographic museum of the canton of Ticino was opened in 1963 there. In the fall of 2006, Cavergno and Bignasco were incorporated into the municipality; Bignasco failed to resist the incorporation in court. Geography. Cevio has an area, , of . Of this area, or 0.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 6.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 0.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers  or lakes and or 1.9% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 0.2% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 1.2% is unproductive vegetation. The municipality is located in the Vallemaggia district. It is the center of the Rovana sub-district and is located at the confluence of the Maggia and Rovana rivers. Cevio consists of  a number of scattered settlements. Particularly interesting is the hamlet Boschetto (almost abandoned), which has preserved the structure of the rural seventeenth-century village intact. There are an unusual number of rocks with cup markings. Until 1858, the village of Linescio was part of Cevio, and in 2006, the former municipality of Cavergno joined Cevio. Cevio lies northwest of Locarno in the upper Vallemaggia. The mountain Pizzo Alzasca overlooks the town. Coat of arms. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Aure St. maurice riding a horse argent holding a flag gules a cross argent and in base  three fleurs de li or." Demographics. Cevio has a population () of . , 14.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -4.6%. Most of the population () speaks Italian language (387 or 77.9%), with German being second most common (54 or 10.9%) and Spanish being third (21 or 4.2%). There are 12 people who speak French and 1 person who speaks Romansh. The inhabitants of Cevio speak a dialect that is very different from standard Italian. Cevio is one of the municipalities of Ticino in which Italian has most  notably lost ground. Of the 476 residents, 364 (76.47 percent) are Swiss citizens. The largest non-Swiss groups are from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sri Lanka. The unusually high number of non-Swiss in the municipality is due to the abundance of jobs in the quarries and hospital. , the gender distribution of the population was 50.7% male and 49.3% female. The population was made up of 512 Swiss men (41.9% of the population), and 107 (8.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 540 Swiss women (44.2%), and 63 (5.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality  137 or about 27.6% were born in Cevio and lived there in 2000. There were 140 or 28.2% who were born in the same canton, while 60 or 12.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 131 or 26.4% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 7 live births to Swiss citizens and were 15 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 8 while the foreign population decreased by 1. There were 2 Swiss men and 3 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At  the same time, there were 8 non-Swiss men 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 4 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 8 people. This represents a population growth rate of -1.0%. The age distribution, , in Cevio is; 94 children or 7.7% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 127 teenagers or 10.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 126 people or 10.3% of the population are between 20  and 29 years old. 112 people or 9.2% are between 30 and 39, 204 people or 16.7% are between 40 and 49, and 187 people or 15.3% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 140 people or 11.5% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 133 people or 10.9% are between 70 and 79, there are 99 people or 8.1% who are over 80. , there were 186 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 235 married individuals, 52 widows or widowers and 24 individuals who are divorced. , there were  518 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 68 households that consist of only one person and 8 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 205 households that answered this question, 33.2% were households made up of just one person and 4 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 59 married couples without children, 56 married couples with children There were 10 single parents with a child or children. There were 4 households that were made up unrelated people and  4 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing. The historical population is given in the following chart: Heritage sites of national significance. The Respini-Moretti House, the Case Franzoni and the Museo di Valmaggia, the Church of S. Maria del Ponte alla Rovana, the Parish Church of S. Maria Assunta e S. Giovanni with Ossuary and Portico, and the Pretorio are all listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The villages of Bignasco, Boschetto, Cevio/Rovana and the Val Bavona are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. Politics. In the 2007  federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 32.93% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (26.74%), the SP (15.29%) and the Ticino League (14.43%). In the federal election, a total of 386 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 45.7%. In the "Gran Consiglio" election, there were a total of 847 registered voters in Cevio, of which 575 or 67.9% voted. 3 blank ballots were cast, leaving 572 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD+GenGiova which received 167 or 29.2% of the vote. The next  three most popular parties were; the SSI (with 123 or 21.5%), the PLRT (with 103 or 18.0%) and the PS (with 69 or 12.1%). In the "Consiglio di Stato" election, 2 blank ballots and 2 null ballots were cast, leaving 571 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD which received 171 or 29.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the LEGA (with 116 or 20.3%), the SSI (with 97 or 17.0%) and the PLRT (with 90 or 15.8%). Economy. , Cevio had an unemployment rate of 1.51%. , there were 32 people employed  in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 148 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 19 businesses in this sector. 372 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 66 businesses in this sector. There were 209 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.1% of the workforce. , there were 252 workers who commuted into the municipality and 89 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About  6.7% of the workforce coming into Cevio are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 7.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.8% used a private car. , there were 7 hotels in Cevio with a total of 71 rooms and 141 beds. Religion. From the , 389 or 78.3% were Roman Catholic, while 36 or 7.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.61% of the population), and there were 2 individuals (or about 0.40% of the population) who belonged to another Christian  church. There were 9 (or about 1.81% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist. 28 (or about 5.63% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 23 individuals (or about 4.63% of the population) did not answer the question. Climate. Between 1981 and 2010 Cevio had an average of 106.1 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was September during which time Cevio received an average of of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of  8.3 days. The month with the most days of precipitation was May, with an average of 13, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 5.8 days. Cevio village has a Maritime Temperate climate (CfB) under the Köppen climate classification. The average annual temperature is . The average coldest month was January with an average temperature of , while the warmest month was July with an average temperature of . Education. In Cevio about 146 or (29.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 40  or (8.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 40 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.0% were Swiss men, 35.0% were Swiss women. In Cevio there were a total of 197 students (). The Ticino education system provides up to three years of non-mandatory kindergarten and in Cevio there were 23 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the municipality, 62 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 49 students in the two-year middle school, while 17 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 7 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 33 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 were 4 students in the professional program. , there were 236 students in Cevio who came from another municipality, while 16 residents attended schools outside the municipality