Gentilino is a village and former municipality in the

canton of Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts and its capital city is Bellinzo ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, close to

Lake Lugano Lake Lugano ( or , from ; ) is a glacial lake which is situated on the border between southern Switzerland and northern Italy. The lake, named after the city of Lugano, is situated between Lake Como and Lago Maggiore. It was cited for the first t ...

and the city of

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

. The local Church of Sant'Abbondio (in Italian: ''Chiesa di Sant'Abbondio a Gentilino'' - not to be confused with the Swiss municipality of Sant'Abbondio above

Lake Maggiore Lake Maggiore (, ; ; ; ; literally 'greater lake') or Verbano (; ) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest lake in Italy and the largest in southern Switzerland. The lake and its shoreline are divided be ...

, or the

Basilica of Sant'Abbondio The Basilica of Sant'Abbondio is a Romanesque-style 11th-century Catholic basilica church located in Como, region of Lombardy, Italy. Description The Basilica was built in the on a previous 5th-century early Christian church dedicated to Saint ...

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, Italy) dates from the eleventh century.http://ext.sbb.ch/DaysOut/Ticino/Following-in-the-footsteps-of-Hermann-Hesse.aspx The cemetery of Sant'Abbondio is the resting place of

Hugo Ball Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry. ...

Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a Germany, German-born Conducting, conductor, pianist, and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French people, French cit ...

, and

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss poet and novelist, and the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophic ...

. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. In 2004, the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

and

Montagnola Montagnola () is a small Switzerland, Swiss village in Collina d'Oro municipality. Located in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, it is close to the border between Switzerland and Italy. It looks over Lake Lugano and the city of Lugano upon it ...

to form a new and larger municipality

Collina d'Oro Collina d'Oro () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Lugano (district), Lugano in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It was formed from the 2004 union of the villages of Agra, Switzerland, ...

.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010

History

Gentilino is first mentioned in 1210 as ''Gentarino''. In the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

, Gentilino belonged to the royal court of Agnuzzo, which was donated in 818 by Emperor

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...

to the clergy of

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

. During the 11th century it belonged to the monastery of S. Abbondio in Como. The union of the monastic estates in 1335 probably led to the creation of the ''Concilium Sancti Abundii'' which included Gentilino and Viglio as well as Montagnola and the surrounding villages. In the early 18th century, the village wanted to buy the monastery's rights to the village. However, this triggered a long-running dispute, in which the canton was eventually involved. It is believed that the church of S. Abbondio was the center of a medieval

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, which became a sub-parish in the 11th century. However, the first written record of the church dates from 1140. The current appearance is due to an enlargement in the 17th century. In the past centuries, the population lived mainly from agriculture, but there was also a large exodus of builders (known as ''Maestranze''). Recently, it has grown into a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for the nearby city of

Location

Until the merger, it included the north side of the Collina d'Oro valley, and the settlement of Viglio. A pre-primary school is located in Gentilino.Istruzione

Archive
. Collina d'Oro commune. Retrieved on April 223, 2015.

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:600 height:211 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:101 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey unit:year increment:350 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:darkgrey unit:year increment:70 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1591 from:start till:470 text:"470" bar:1850 from:start till:333 text:"333" bar:1900 from:start till:427 text:"427" bar:1950 from:start till:558 text:"558" bar:2000 from:start till:1328 text:"1328"

References

* {{Authority control Former municipalities of Ticino Villages in Ticino