Bedretto

In 1906, pre-Roman graves and a Roman era villa and coins were discovered in Bedretto. The presumption, that it was originally part of Airolo, could not be confirmed by any available records. Bedretto is first mentioned in 1210 as Bedoledo and at that time it was a separate municipality. Already in 1227, when the alpine pastures of Leventina valley were divided among the communities, Bedretto had dependent, surrounding farms and hamlets. Bedretto was the only community that was not given any alpine pastures. In 1227, Bedretto is also mentioned as a separate parish. The parish church of SS Martiri Maccabei in the settlement of Villa was rebuilt after its destruction by an avalanche in 1594. The existing building dates from the 19th Century. The hospice in All'Acqua was the starting point to two famous mountain crossings: the Nufenen Pass, which leads to Ulrichen in the Upper Valais, and the Passo di San Giacomo, which leads to the Italian Formazza valley. The Hospice of Valdolgia or St. Nicholas on the Passo di San Giacomo was a second station in the old mule track. Due to the steep slopes of Bedretto Valley, avalanches often hit the villages. The avalanche in 1863, destroyed half the village and killed 29 people, and the one in 1749 killed 13. In winter, the valley is often cut off and the connection of villages to each other and with Airolo may be interrupted for days. With the construction of avalanche barriers, the situation has improved. The road between Airolo and Bedretto opened in 1924, was extended in 1932 to Ronco then in 1964 extended beyond Nufenen. The valley is also today still fairly isolated and without a constant connection with Valais, since a rail project to connect the valley to the Furka Oberalp Bahn as part of the Furka Base Tunnel project failed. Historically, the scarce resources of the valley (cattle, dairy farming and cultivation of potatoes and rye) were insufficient to feed all of the inhabitants. So they were forced to seasonal migrate abroad (mainly in Italy and France) seeking work as chestnut roasters, waitresses or domestic servants. Since the seasonal migration ceased at the end of World War II, the valley has depopulated more rapidly. The decline of the permanent resident population is offset in the summer months by the return of locals and offset in the winter by the influx of tourists and holiday guests. ==Geography==

Massif. (1931) Bedretto is located in the Bedretto Valley running from the Nufenen Pass via the headwaters of the Ticino river down to Airolo. The municipality consists of the village of Bedretto and the hamlets of Ronco, Villa (site of the municipal administration) and Ossasco, and forms part of the Leventina district. The municipality has an area, , of . Of this area, or 2.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 11.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 0.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and or 55.9% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.5%. Out of the forested land, 5.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.8% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 19.1% is unproductive vegetation and 36.8% is too rocky for vegetation. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Vert and Argent two larch trees issuant from the base counterchanged. ==Demographics==

Bedretto has a population () of . , 12.2% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 7.8%. Most of the population () speaks Italian (91.7%), with German being second most common ( 4.2%) and French being third ( 4.2%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 3 speak German, 3 people speak French, 66 people speak Italian. The remainder ( people) speak another language. , the gender distribution of the population was 52.2% male and 47.8% female. The population was made up of 26 Swiss men (38.8% of the population), and 9 (13.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 30 Swiss women (44.8%), and 2 (3.0%) non-Swiss women. , there were 37 private households in the municipality, and an average of 1.9 persons per household. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. there were 152 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 5 room apartment of which there were 48. There were 7 single room apartments and 48 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 37 apartments (24.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 115 apartments (75.7%) were seasonally occupied and apartments (0.0%) were empty. ==Sights==

The entire villages of Bedretto and Villa are designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election, the most popular party was the CVP which received 50.28% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (19.72%), the Ticino League (13.33%) and the SVP (8.33%). In the federal election, a total of 47 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 57.3%. In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 83 registered voters in Bedretto, of which 58 or 69.9% voted. 1 blank ballot was cast, leaving 57 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD+GenGiova which received 25 or 43.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the SSI (with 13 or 22.8%), the PLRT (with 6 or 10.5%) and the LEGA (with 5 or 8.8%). In the Consiglio di Stato election, 1 blank ballot was cast, leaving 57 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD which received 29 or 50.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the SSI (with 10 or 17.5%), the PLRT (with 7 or 12.3%) and the PLRT (with 7 or 12.3%). ==Economy==

, Bedretto had an unemployment rate of 0.78%. , there were 5 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 1 business involved in this sector. 10 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 12 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 4 businesses in this sector. Of the working population, 3.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 38.7% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 65 or 90.3% were Roman Catholic, while 2 or 2.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 2 individuals (or about 2.78% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 3 individuals (or about 4.17% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Bedretto about 61.3% 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 0 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 2 who attend part-time. , there were 7 students from Bedretto who attended schools outside the municipality. ==Famous people==

• Raffaele Forni, bishop and nuncio == See also ==