Gordevio was a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the district of
Vallemaggia
The Vallemaggia District is a district of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It has a population of (as of ). The capital of the district is Cevio.
Geography
The Vallemaggia District has an area, , of . Of this area, or 1.7% is used for ...
in the
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
of
Ticino
Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...
in
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 ...
. On 20 April 2008,
Avegno and Gordevio merged to form
Avegno Gordevio.
[Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010
History
Gordevio is first mentioned in 1200 as ''de gordauio''. In 1335 it was mentioned as ''de Gordavio''.
[
The ]parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
of SS Giacomo e Filippo, is first mentioned in the 13th century. The current building was built in the 17th century on the remains of a previous church from the 14th century. It contains paintings by Giovanni Antonio Vanoni (19th century) and probably by Giuseppe Antonio Felice Orelli, who created fresco
Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
es in the adjacent ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...
in 1753. In village of Brièè, in 1666, the chapel of S. Antonio Abate was built. In the 14th century both Gordevio and Avegno had their own chaplain
A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...
. The two villages broke away from the mother church
Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...
in Maggia, and parted from each other probably about 1645.
The village center of contains some houses from the 19th century. Due to lack of farming land, emigration (at first mainly to Rome, but in the second half of the 19th century overseas as well) lowered the number of inhabitants. In the last decades of the 20th century, the population has risen again. This increase is mainly due to its proximity to agglomeration of Locarno
Locarno (; ; Ticinese dialect, Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Switzerland, Swiss List of towns in Switzerland, town and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district Locarno (district), Locarno (of which it is the capita ...
. Agricultural jobs have practically disappeared from the village.
Geography
The village is located in the Vallemaggia district. It consists of two sections, Villa and Brièè, which are separated by the Ri di Gèi stream.
Coat of arms
The 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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Per bend gules two fleurs de lis argent and of the last a cross pattee per saltire azure and of the first and overall a bendlet of the third.''
Demographics
Gordevio has a population () of 812. Most of the population () speaks Italian language
Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...
(675 or 84.6%), with German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
being second most common (80 or 10.0%) and French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
being third (29 or 3.6%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh.[
Of the population in the village 305 or about 38.2% were born in Gordevio and lived there in 2000. There were 236 or 29.6% who were born in the same canton, while 115 or 14.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 100 or 12.5% were born outside of Switzerland.][ , there were 346 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 354 married individuals, 58 widows or widowers and 40 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
There were 59 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 274 households that answered this question, 21.5% were households made up of just one person and 7 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 64 married couples without children, 104 married couples with children There were 26 single parents with a child or children. There were 12 households that were made up unrelated people and 2 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing.[
there were 260 single-family homes (or 78.5% of the total) out of a total of 331 inhabited buildings. There were 64 multi-family buildings (19.3%), along with 4 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (1.2%) and 3 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (0.9%). Of the single-family homes 12 were built before 1919, while 10 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single-family homes (84) were built between 1919 and 1945.][Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
there were 422 apartments in the village. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 112. There were 18 single room apartments and 122 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 270 apartments (64.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 142 apartments (33.6%) were seasonally occupied and 10 apartments (2.4%) were empty.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 27.17% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (26.51%), the FDP (21.86%) and the Ticino League
The Ticino League () is a regionalist, national-conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of Ticino.
The party was founded in 1991 by entrepreneur Giuliano Bignasca and journalist Flavio Maspoli. After some public camp ...
(13.94%). In the federal election, a total of 262 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 45.5%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, ''Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton''
accessed 28 May 2010
In the '' Gran Consiglio'' election, there were a total of 576 registered voters in Gordevio, of which 358 or 62.2% voted. 3 blank ballots were cast, leaving 355 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PS which received 88 or 24.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD+GenGiova (with 85 or 23.9%), the SSI (with 73 or 20.6%) and the LEGA (with 44 or 12.4%).[ Elezioni cantonali: Gran Consiglio, Consiglio di Stato]
accessed 23 November 2010
In the ''Consiglio di Stato'' election, 4 blank ballots and 1 null ballot were cast, leaving 353 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PS which received 97 or 27.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD (with 88 or 24.9%), the LEGA (with 73 or 20.7%) and the SSI (with 50 or 14.2%).[
]
Economy
There were 318 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.2% of the workforce. , there were 86 workers who commuted into the village and 226 workers who commuted away. The village is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.6 workers leaving the village for every one entering. About 14.0% of the workforce coming into Gordevio are coming from outside Switzerland.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010
Religion
From the , 632 or 79.2% were Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 52 or 6.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.25% of the population), and there was 1 individual who belongs to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. 80 (or about 10.03% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 30 individuals (or about 3.76% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Gordevio about 313 or (39.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education.
Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, and 77 or (9.6%) have completed additional higher education (either University
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). Of the 77 who completed tertiary schooling, 55.8% were Swiss men, 37.7% were Swiss women.[ , there were 3 students in Gordevio who came from another village, while 105 residents attended schools outside the village.][
]
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of Ticino