Menzonio is a village and former 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 of Ticino Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...

, Switzerland. In 2004 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Broglio, Brontallo,

Fusio Fusio is a village and former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. In 2004 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Broglio, Brontallo, Menzonio, Peccia and Prato-Sor ...

, Peccia and

Prato-Sornico Prato-Sornico is a former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. The municipality contained the villages Prato and Sornico. These entities were former municipalities of their own, having been merged to ...

to form a new and larger municipality

Lavizzara Lavizzara is a municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The municipality was created in 2004 by a merger of Broglio, Brontallo, Fusio, Menzonio, Peccia and Prato-Sornico.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010

History

Menzonio is first mentioned in 1364 as ''Menzone''. Until the beginning of the 15th Century, Menzonio and Brontallo formed a single municipality, and together with Bignasco and Cavergno it formed a '' Vicinanza'' which was under the jurisdiction of the Lavizzara valley. At the time of the Swiss Confederation rule over Ticino, Menzonio was one of seven villages in the valley. The village church was part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Cevio until 1513 when it split away to form a parish with Brontallo. In 1655, this parish was dissolved and Menzonio formed its own parish. The Church of SS Giacomo e Filippo was first mentioned in the 15th Century. The current building was built in 1585 and was rebuilt in 1644 and finally in 1905. In the 17th Century, the population reached its peak and then decreased gradually, initially because of emigration to Italy. Later the residents emigrated to California and finally they moved away from the villages to the cities of Ticino and the rest of Switzerland. For centuries the local economy was dominated by grazing and agriculture. In the 19th Century there was a

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the ...

quarry and four mills. The road that connects Menzonio with the valley floor, was built in 1949. In 2000, three-quarters of the workforce were commuters.

Geography

Menzonio has an area, , of . Of this area, or 2.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 54.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 0.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 38.6% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.2%. Out of the forested land, 38.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 7.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.6% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 18.4% is unproductive vegetation and 20.2% is too rocky for vegetation. The village is located in the Vallemaggia district, on a terrace along the right side of the Val Lavizzara at an elevation of .

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 the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visua ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

is ''Azure St. Mary praying and crowned all argent haloed or issuant from a stump snagged and eradicated vert sprouting a branch with three leaves.'' The coat of arms refers to a local story. According to the story, due to the lack of arable land, many of the young men of Menzonio emigrated to Rome in search of work. One day, a group of emigrants came back carrying an image of the Blessed Virgin in a casket. They stopped outside the village to rest and set the casket on the stump of a cherry tree. When they arose and tried to pick up the casket, they discovered that the tree had grown up into the casket and it could not be moved.

Demographics

Menzonio has a population () of 73. Most of the population () speaks

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...

(69 or 94.5%), with

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

being second most common (3 or 4.1%) and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

being third (1 or 1.4%). Of the population in the village 45 or about 61.6% were born in Menzonio and lived there in 2000. There were 17 or 23.3% who were born in the same canton, while 4 or 5.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4 or 5.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 27 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 36 married individuals, 8 widows or widowers and 2 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 There were 14 households that consist of only one person and 1 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 34 households that answered this question, 41.2% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 7 married couples without children, 10 married couples with children There were 3 single parents with a child or children. there were 89 single-family homes (or 92.7% of the total) out of a total of 96 inhabited buildings. There were 6 multi-family buildings (6.3%), along with 1 multi-purpose building that were mostly used for housing. Of the single-family homes 7 were built before 1919, and none were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single-family homes (65) 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 103 apartments in the village. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 27. There were 9 single room apartments and 30 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 34 apartments (33.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 68 apartments (66.0%) were seasonally occupied and 1 apartments (1.0%) were empty. The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000
accessed 29 January 2011 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:320 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:60 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1669 from:start till:315 text:"315" bar:1795 from:start till:149 text:"149" bar:1850 from:start till:177 text:"177" bar:1860 from:start till:198 text:"198" bar:1870 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:1880 from:start till:205 text:"205" bar:1888 from:start till:209 text:"209" bar:1900 from:start till:190 text:"190" bar:1910 from:start till:157 text:"157" bar:1920 from:start till:128 text:"128" bar:1930 from:start till:116 text:"116" bar:1941 from:start till:129 text:"129" bar:1950 from:start till:128 text:"128" bar:1960 from:start till:98 text:"98" bar:1970 from:start till:89 text:"89" bar:1980 from:start till:104 text:"104" bar:1990 from:start till:70 text:"70" bar:2000 from:start till:73 text:"73"

Economy

There were 32 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.5% of the workforce. , there were 26 workers who commuted away from the village.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010

Religion

From the , 64 or 87.7% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

, while or 0.0% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. There were 3 (or about 4.11% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...

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 6 individuals (or about 8.22% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Menzonio about 25 or (34.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

, and 9 or (12.3%) have completed additional higher education (either

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied ar ...

''). Of the 9 who completed tertiary schooling, 33.3% were Swiss men, 55.6% were Swiss women. , there were 4 students from Menzonio who attended schools outside the village.

References

{{Authority control Former municipalities of Ticino Villages in Switzerland