Monteggio

Monteggio is first mentioned in 1466 as da Montegio. Until 1819 the current village core was called Albio. The name comes from the fortified seat of the Capitanei of Sessa, the ruins of which are on the site of the Chapel of S. Adalberto (first mentioned in 1428) located in Castello. During the Middle Ages the history of Monteggio was closely connected to the Sessa family. The communities in the Valley of Tresa (Monteggio, Ponte Tresa and Croglio) were given special privileges, because they had special military and defensive obligations. The tax exemptions granted in the 14th century by the Duke of Milan were reconfirmed in 1513 by the Swiss Confederation. Religiously, Monteggio belongs to the parish of Sessa. In the past, many industries operated in Monteggio, including; brickworks, mills, hammer mills, fishing and a sawmill. By the middle of the 19th century, peat was cut near the village and there was a foundry. In the past few decades, various commercial and industrial enterprises have settled in the municipality. ==Geography==

Monteggio had an area, , of . Of this area, or 40.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 48.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 19.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 2.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 13.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.4%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.1% of the area Out of the forested land, 43.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 22.9% is used for growing crops, while 4.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 13.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, all of it is unproductive vegetation. The former municipality is located in the Lugano district, in the lower Malcantone valley on the Italian border. It is broken up into 26 sections or settlements including Brusata, Castello, Fornasette, Lisora, Molinazzo and Ponte Cremenaga. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per saltire gules and sable and in a chief or an eagle displayed sable. ==Demographics==

Monteggio had a population (as of 2019) of 849. , 16.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 11%. Most of the population () speaks Italian (79.6%), with German being second most common (14.5%) and French being third (2.4%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 114 speak German, 19 people speak French, 624 people speak Italian. The remainder (27 people) speak another language. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. The population was made up of 357 Swiss men (40.2% of the population), and 77 (8.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 377 Swiss women (42.4%), and 78 (8.8%) non-Swiss women. , there were 352 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. there were 536 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 172. There were 21 single room apartments and 147 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 352 apartments (65.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 179 apartments (33.4%) were seasonally occupied and 5 apartments (0.9%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:810 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:619 text:"619" bar:1860 from:start till:640 text:"640" bar:1870 from:start till:751 text:"751" bar:1880 from:start till:766 text:"766" bar:1890 from:start till:794 text:"794" bar:1900 from:start till:802 text:"802" bar:1910 from:start till:809 text:"809" bar:1920 from:start till:732 text:"732" bar:1930 from:start till:647 text:"647" bar:1941 from:start till:609 text:"609" bar:1950 from:start till:606 text:"606" bar:1960 from:start till:584 text:"584" bar:1970 from:start till:651 text:"651" bar:1980 from:start till:648 text:"648" bar:1990 from:start till:637 text:"637" bar:2000 from:start till:784 text:"784" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 31.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (19.35%), the Ticino League (17.87%) and the SP (13.26%). In the federal election, a total of 229 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 35.9%. In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 655 registered voters in Monteggio, of which 303 or 46.3% voted. 7 blank ballots and 1 null ballot were cast, leaving 295 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 88 or 29.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the SSI (with 54 or 18.3%), the PPD+GenGiova (with 43 or 14.6%) and the LEGA (with 41 or 13.9%). In the Consiglio di Stato election, 5 blank ballots were cast, leaving 298 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 84 or 28.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the LEGA (with 66 or 22.1%), the SSI (with 45 or 15.1%) and the PPD (with 43 or 14.4%). ==Economy==

, Monteggio had an unemployment rate of 3.33%. , there were 17 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 378 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 13 businesses in this sector. 83 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 25 businesses in this sector. Of the working population, 8% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.4% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 561 or 71.6% were Roman Catholic, while 72 or 9.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 98 individuals (or about 12.50% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 53 individuals (or about 6.76% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Monteggio about 67.3% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). There were 10 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 8 who attend part-time. , there were 54 students from Monteggio who attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==