Lumino
Encyclopedia
Lumino 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 Bellinzona
Bellinzona (district)
The district of Bellinzona is a district of Canton Ticino, Switzerland. It has a population of .-Geography:The district has an area, , of . Of this area, or 13.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 68.7% 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

Lumino is first mentioned in 1168 as locus Lugomini. In German it used to be known as Lugmin. The convenient location at the entrance to the Val Mesolcina
Val Mesolcina
The Misox is an alpine valley of the Grisons, Switzerland, stretching from the San Bernardino Pass to Grono where it joins the Calanca Valley...

and the ancient fortifications in the neighborhood indicate that there was an early settlement. The assets 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....

 in Lumino were given to Capitanei of Locarno in the 12th Century. It is listed as part of the County of Bellinzona
Bellinzona
Bellinzona is the administrative capital of the canton Ticino in Switzerland. The city is famous for its three castles that have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2000....

 in 1335. By 1242 it was already part of a community with Castione, which was dissolved in 1818. Several properties and the tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...

 belonged to 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 Bellinzona. The Church of St. Mamette was first mentioned in 1237 and became a parish church before 1591. The border between Lumino and the Graubünden
Graubünden
Graubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...

 village of San Vittore
San Vittore
San Vittore may refer to:* San Vittore, Switzerland, a municipality in Graubünden, Switzerland* San Vittore del Lazio, a comune in Lazio, Italy* San Vittore Olona, a comune in Lombardy, Italy...

 was finalized, after centuries of dispute, in 1776. During construction of the new roadway over the San Bernardino Pass
San Bernardino Pass
San Bernardino Pass is a high mountain pass in the Swiss Alps connecting the Hinterrhein and the Mesolcina valleys between Thusis and Bellinzona . Located in the far eastern side of the Western Alps it is not to be confused with the Great St. Bernard Pass and the Little St. Bernard Pass...

 in 1818, the cantonal authorities forbade the inhabitants of Lumino from making improvements on the road between the Moesa
Moesa
The Moesa is a 47 km river, a tributary of the Ticino, which flows through the Swiss cantons of Graubünden and Ticino.It rises in Val Vignun near the San Bernardino Pass and descends, along with the A13 motorway, through the Val Mesolcina towards Roveredo, where it receives the rivers Calancasca...

 bridge and the border with Graubünden. In the last decades of the 20th Century, the construction of many new houses (in 2000, 73% of the working population worked outside the municipality) and the resettlement of a small but thriving industry changed the village from a small farming village.

Geography

Lumino has an area, , of 9.95 square kilometres (3.8 sq mi). Of this area, 1 km² (0.386102158592535 sq mi) or 10.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 7.59 km² (2.9 sq mi) or 76.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.53 km² (0.204634144054044 sq mi) or 5.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.15 km² (37.1 acre) or 1.5% is either rivers or lakes and 0.41 km² (0.158301885022939 sq mi) or 4.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 73.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.1% is used for growing crops, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops and 2.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 3.1% is unproductive vegetation.

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 Per pale Gules Leaves issuant from an Amphora Or and Azure a Lion rampant Or a Crescent in canton and Overall a Bend Gules. The arms of the municipality are those of the architect Marco Mades, a citizen of Lumino, who became famous for his works of art in Rome.

Demographics

Lumino has a population of . , 14.2% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 6.9%.

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...

(90.3%), 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 ( 4.4%) and Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

 being third ( 1.8%). Of the Swiss national languages , 50 speak German, 10 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...

, 1,018 people speak Italian, and 3 people speak Romansh. The remainder (46 people) speak another language.

, the gender distribution of the population was 47.6% male and 52.4% female. The population was made up of 512 Swiss men (39.1% of the population), and 111 (8.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 601 Swiss women (45.9%), and 85 (6.5%) non-Swiss women.

In there were 12 live births to Swiss citizens and 3 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 7 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population increased by 1. There was 1 Swiss man and 2 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 4 non-Swiss men who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was an increase of 49 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 12 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.0%.

The age distribution, , in Lumino is; 145 children or 11.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 123 teenagers or 9.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 136 people or 10.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 181 people or 13.8% are between 30 and 39, 227 people or 17.3% are between 40 and 49, and 170 people or 13.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 166 people or 12.7% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 99 people or 7.6% are between 70 and 79, there are 62 people or 4.7% who are over 80.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.58 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 62.3% 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 470 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. there were 327 single family homes (or 74.3% of the total) out of a total of 440 inhabited buildings. There were 78 two family buildings (17.7%) and 17 multi-family buildings (3.9%). There were also 18 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 603 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 225. There were 21 single room apartments and 150 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 467 apartments (77.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 121 apartments (20.1%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (2.5%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.2 new units per 1000 residents.

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1583 350
1698 358
1801 297
1850 522
1900 588
1950 600
2000 1,127

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 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....

 which received 33.39% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (27.82%), 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...

 (20.31%) 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...

 (8.3%). In the federal election, a total of 497 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 58.3%.

In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 873 registered voters in Lumino, of which 651 or 74.6% voted. 12 blank ballots and 2 null ballots were cast, leaving 637 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was 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....

 which received 223 or 35.0% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PS
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (with 109 or 17.1%), 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 105 or 16.5%) and the SSI (with 101 or 15.9%).

In the Consiglio di Stato election, there were 8 blank ballots and 1 null ballot, which left 642 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 212 or 33.0% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PS (with 152 or 23.7%), the PPD (with 106 or 16.5%) and the SSI (with 86 or 13.4%).

Economy

, Lumino had an unemployment rate of 2.27%. , there were 5 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. 137 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 22 businesses in this sector. 102 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 31 businesses in this sector.

There were 506 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.4% of the workforce. , there were 191 workers who commuted into the municipality and 396 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 7.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 68% used a private car.

, there was one hotel in Lumino.

Religion

From the , 923 or 81.9% were Roman Catholic, while 42 or 3.7% 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 124 individuals (or about 11.00% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 38 individuals (or about 3.37% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Lumino about 68.5% 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 Lumino there are a total of 209 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 Lumino there are 45 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the municipality, 64 students attend the standard primary schools and 4 students attend 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 are 44 students in the two year middle school and 16 students are 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 are 12 vocational students who are attending school full-time and 21 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 are 3 students in the professional program.

, there were 5 students in Lumino who came from another municipality, while 113 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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