Menzonio 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...

, Brontallo

Brontallo

Brontallo 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, 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...

, 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:...

.

History

Menzonio is first mentioned in 1364 as Menzone. Until the beginning of the 15th Century, Menzonio and Brontallo formed a single municipality, and together with Bignasco and Cavergno it formed a Vicinanza

Bürgergemeinde

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

which was under the jurisdiction of the Lavizzara valley. At the time of the Swiss Confederation

Old Swiss Confederacy

The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....

 rule over Ticino, Menzonio was one of seven villages in the valley. The village church 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 until 1513 when it split away to form a parish with Brontallo. In 1655, this parish was dissolved and and Menzonio formed its own parish. The Church of SS Giacomo e Filippo was first mentioned in the 15th Century. The current building was built in 1585 and was rebuilt in 1644 and finally in 1905.

In the 17th Century, the population reached its peak and then decreased gradually, initially because of emigration to Italy. Later the residents emigrated to California and finally they moved away from the villages to the cities of Ticino and the rest of Switzerland. For centuries the local economy was dominated by grazing and agriculture. In the 19th Century there was a soapstone

Soapstone

Soapstone is a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is thus rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occurs in the areas where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx...

 quarry and four mills. The road that connects Menzonio with the valley floor, was built in 1949. In 2000, three-quarters of the workforce were commuters.

Geography

Menzonio has an area, , of 10.68 square kilometres (4.1 sq mi). Of this area, 0.23 km² (0.0888034964762831 sq mi) or 2.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.84 km² (2.3 sq mi) or 54.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.09 km² (22.2 acre) or 0.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.15 km² (37.1 acre) or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and 4.12 km² (1.6 sq mi) or 38.6% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.2%. Out of the forested land, 38.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 7.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.6% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 18.4% is unproductive vegetation and 20.2% is too rocky for vegetation.

The village is located in the Vallemaggia district, on a terrace along the right side of the Val Lavizzara at an elevation of 732 m (2,401.6 ft).

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. Mary praying and crowned all argent haloed or issuant from a stump snagged and eradicated vert sprouting a branch with three leaves. The coat of arms refers to a local story. According to the story, due to the lack of arable land, many of the young men of Menzonio emigrated to Rome in search of work. One day, a group of emigrants came back carrying an image of the Blessed Virgin in a casket. They stopped outside the village to rest and set the casket on the stump of a cherry tree. When they arose and tried to pick up the casket, they discovered that the tree had grown up into the casket and it could not be moved.

Demographics

Menzonio has a population of 73.

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...

 (69 or 94.5%), 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 (3 or 4.1%) 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 1.4%).

Of the population in the village 45 or about 61.6% were born in Menzonio and lived there in 2000. There were 17 or 23.3% who were born in the same canton, while 4 or 5.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4 or 5.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 27 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 36 married individuals, 8 widows or widowers and 2 individuals who are divorced.

There were 14 households that consist of only one person and 1 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 34 households that answered this question, 41.2% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 7 married couples without children, 10 married couples with children There were 3 single parents with a child or children. there were 89 single family homes (or 92.7% of the total) out of a total of 96 inhabited buildings. There were 6 multi-family buildings (6.3%), along with 1 multi-purpose building that were mostly used for housing. Of the single family homes 7 were built before 1919, and none were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (65) were built between 1919 and 1945.

there were 103 apartments in the village. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 27. There were 9 single room apartments and 30 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 34 apartments (33.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 68 apartments (66.0%) were seasonally occupied and 1 apartments (1.0%) were empty.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Economy

There were 32 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.5% of the workforce. , there were 26 workers who commuted away from the village.

Religion

From the , 64 or 87.7% were Roman Catholic, while or 0.0% 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 were 3 (or about 4.11% 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 6 individuals (or about 8.22% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Menzonio about 25 or (34.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 9 or (12.3%) 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 9 who completed tertiary schooling, 33.3% were Swiss men, 55.6% were Swiss women.

, there were 4 students from Menzonio who attended schools outside the village.