Bironico

Bironico is first mentioned in 1296 as Bironico. By 1000, Bironico was probably the secular and religious center of Carvina, which included the middle and upper Vedeggio valley. For example, former parish included the villages of Camignolo, Ison, Medeglia, Mezzovico-Vira, Rivera, Robasacco and Sigirino. In the Early Middle Ages it was under the authority of the bishop of Como, followed by the city of Como. At the end of the 13th century, the Rusca, a noble family from Como, lived in the community. They lived in the castle between 1328 and 1416. Starting in the 16th century, an inn at the bridge over the Leguana served as a meeting place of the Swiss Confederation's ministers. The parish church is from 1267 and is dedicated to St. Martin. In the past, the local economy relied on traditional alpine agriculture and emigration. Trade and industry have recently increased, but the current economic structure is dominated by commuters to the lower Vedeggio valley, Lugano and Bellinzona. ==Geography==

Bironico has an area, , of . Of this area, or 11.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 77.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 4.3% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 3.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.2%. Out of the forested land, 72.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.7% is used for growing crops, while 2.4% is used for orchards or vine crops and 3.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 4.1% is unproductive vegetation. Bironico is located south of the Monte Ceneri Pass and north of the district seat Lugano. Its area code is 091. Neighbouring villages are Camignolo to the south, Medeglia to the north and Rivera to the west. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a castle argent in front of a patriarchal cross bottony or and in chief on a sword of the second hilted and pommed of the third a cloak gules. The castle represents a castle erected in 1418 by the Count Giov. Giacomo Rusca. The patriarchal cross is that of the Cardinal Agostino Oreggio from Bironico, archbishop of Benevento from 1633 to 1635 and the sword and cloak is from S. Martin, the patron saint of the church. ==Demographics==

, 18.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997-2007) the population has changed at a rate of 21%. Most of the population () speaks Italian (91.0%), with German being second most common (3.3%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (2.1%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 17 speak German, 1 person speaks French, 466 people speak Italian, and 2 people speak Romansh. The remainder (26 people) speak another language. , the gender distribution of the population was 50.9% male and 49.1% female. The population was made up of 262 Swiss men (41.9% of the population), and 56 (9.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 261 Swiss women (41.8%), and 46 (7.4%) non-Swiss women. the average number of residents per living room was 0.61 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 as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 48.1% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement). , there were 212 private households in the village, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. The vacancy rate for the village, , was 0.37%. there were 252 apartments in the village. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 80. There were 14 single room apartments and 65 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 212 apartments (84.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 39 apartments (15.5%) were seasonally occupied and 1 apartments (0.4%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1080 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:520 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1769 from:start till:128 text:"128" bar:1801 from:start till:201 text:"201" bar:1850 from:start till:177 text:"177" bar:1860 from:start till:153 text:"153" bar:1870 from:start till:156 text:"156" bar:1880 from:start till:185 text:"185" bar:1890 from:start till:209 text:"209" bar:1900 from:start till:176 text:"176" bar:1910 from:start till:206 text:"206" bar:1920 from:start till:248 text:"248" bar:1930 from:start till:323 text:"323" bar:1941 from:start till:265 text:"265" bar:1950 from:start till:272 text:"272" bar:1960 from:start till:340 text:"340" bar:1970 from:start till:399 text:"399" bar:1980 from:start till:388 text:"388" bar:1990 from:start till:431 text:"431" bar:2000 from:start till:512 text:"512" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The Ruderi Del Castello Di S. Sofia and Stazione Radio Monte Ceneri (shared with Rivera) are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 37.02% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (25.83%), the Ticino League (12.5%) and the SVP (11.67%). In the federal election, a total of 190 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.7%. In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 373 registered voters in Bironico, of which 266 or 71.3% voted. 4 blank ballots were cast, leaving 262 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 99 or 37.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD+GenGiova (with 66 or 25.2%), the LEGA (with 36 or 13.7%) and the SSI (with 29 or 11.1%). In the Consiglio di Stato election, 2 blank ballots were cast, leaving 264 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 96 or 36.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD (with 68 or 25.8%), the LEGA (with 42 or 15.9%) and the SSI (with 29 or 11.0%). ==Economy==

, Bironico had an unemployment rate of 4.62%. , there were 6 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. 75 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 10 businesses in this sector. 158 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 31 businesses in this sector. Of the working population, 4.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 67.5% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 432 or 84.4% were Roman Catholic, while 22 or 4.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 40 individuals (or about 7.81% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 18 individuals (or about 3.52% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Bironico about 68.8% of the population (between age 25 and 64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule). There were 5 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 20 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 17 students in Bironico who came from another village, while 77 residents attended schools outside the village. ==Climate==

Bironico has a Continental Subarctic climate (Dfc) 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 . The wettest month was May during which time Bironico received an average of of rain or snow. The driest month was February during which time Bironico received an average of of rain or snow. ==Transport==

Bironico is served by the nearby Rivera-Bironico station, on the Gotthard railway. ==References==