Brontallo is a village and former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia

Vallemaggia (district)

The district of Vallemaggia is a district of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It has a population of . The capital of the district is Cevio.-Geography:...

 in the canton of Ticino, 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....

.

In 2004 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Broglio

Broglio, Switzerland

Broglio is a village and former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.In 2004 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Brontallo, Fusio, Menzonio, Peccia and Prato-Sornico to form a new and larger municipality...

, Fusio

Fusio

Fusio is a village and former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.In 2004 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Broglio, Brontallo, Menzonio, Peccia and Prato-Sornico to form a new and larger municipality...

, Menzonio

Menzonio

Menzonio is a village and former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.In 2004 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Broglio, Brontallo, Fusio, Peccia and Prato-Sornico to form a new and larger municipality...

, Peccia

Peccia

Peccia is one of six small Swiss municipalities which merged in April 2004 to form the commune of Lavizzara, with about 1000 people. The other municipalities were Broglio, Brontallo, Fusio, Menzonio, and Prato-Sornico.-History:...

 and Prato-Sornico

Prato-Sornico

Prato-Sornico is a former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.The municipality contained the villages Prato and Sornico...

 to form a new and larger municipality Lavizzara

Lavizzara

Lavizzara is a municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.The municipality was created in 2004 by a merger of Broglio, Brontallo, Fusio, Menzonio, Peccia and Prato-Sornico.-History:...

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History

Brontallo is first mentioned in 1574 as Bruntalo.

Until the beginning of the 15th Century it formed a community with Menzonio and together with Bignasco and Cavergno it formed a Vicinanza

Bürgergemeinde

The Bürgergemeinde is a statutory corporation in public law in Switzerland...

.

The church of S. Maria e S. Giorgio was first mentioned in the 15th Century. In the 16th Century it was rebuilt, and then renovated several times thereafter. Until 1513 it, along with Menzonio, was part of the 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...

 of Cevio. In 1513 Menzonio broke away from Cevio, but Brontallo remained part of the parish until 1655.

The greatest population was during the 17th Century. The population decline began in the 18th Century, but accelerated into the 20th Century. The road running from the village into the Val Lavizzara was completed in 1955. In 1990 less than a third of the workforce was employed in agriculture. Many of the homes in the village are now vacation homes.

Geography

Brontallo has an area, , of 10.46 square kilometres (4 sq mi). Of this area, 0.13 km² (0.0501932806170296 sq mi) or 1.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6 km² (2.3 sq mi) or 57.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.05 km² (12.4 acre) or 0.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.12 km² (29.7 acre) or 1.1% is either rivers or lakes and 3.81 km² (1.5 sq mi) or 36.4% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.3%. Out of the forested land, 41.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.1% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 16.5% is unproductive vegetation and 19.9% is too rocky for vegetation.

The village is located in the Vallemaggia district, on a terrace at an elevation of 716 m (2,349.1 ft) on the right side of the valley.

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 St. George armoured argent haloed and with a lace or stanging on a dragon vert langued gules piercing it. St. George is the patron saint of the village church.

Demographics

Brontallo has a population of 50.

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...

 (46 or 92.0%), 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 (2 or 4.0%) 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 (1 or 2.0%).

Of the population in the village 32 or about 64.0% were born in Brontallo and lived there in 2000. There were 10 or 20.0% who were born in the same canton, while 4 or 8.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4 or 8.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 23 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 21 married individuals, 6 widows or widowers and 0 individuals who are divorced.

There were 6 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 19 households that answered this question, 31.6% were households made up of just one person and 2 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 2 married couples without children, 8 married couples with children There were 1 single parents with a child or children.

there were 92 single family homes (or 96.8% of the total) out of a total of 95 inhabited buildings. There were 3 multi-family buildings (3.2%). Of the single family homes 4 were built before 1919, while 0 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (56) were built between 1919 and 1945.

there were 98 apartments in the village. The most common apartment size was 2 rooms of which there were 27. There were 15 single room apartments and 15 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 19 apartments (19.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 79 apartments (80.6%) were seasonally occupied.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Economy

There were 13 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 15.4% of the workforce. , there were 10 workers who commuted into the village and 8 workers who commuted away. The village is a net importer of workers, with about 1.3 workers entering the village for every one leaving.

Religion

From the , 45 or 90.0% were Roman Catholic, while 2 or 4.0% 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 was 1 person who belonged to no church, was 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 2 individuals (or about 4.00% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Brontallo about 18 or (36.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 5 or (10.0%) 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 5 who completed tertiary schooling, 80.0% were Swiss men, 20.0% were Swiss women.

, there were 10 students from Brontallo who attended schools outside the village.