Chiasso
Chiasso is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
As the southernmost of Switzerland's municipalities, Chiasso is on the border with Italy, in front of Ponte Chiasso. The municipality of Chiasso includes the villages of Boffalora, Pedrinate and Seseglio.
In 2007, the three mayors of Chiasso, Vacallo and Morbio Inferiore decided to unite into one commune. The new united commune with a population of ~15,300 people over a territory of, was rejected by the population in November 2007.
History
Chiasso is first mentioned in 1140 as Claso.Chiasso (and Boffalora)
Historically, Chiasso and Boffalora were two distinct agricultural villages. Due to the nearby Italian border and customs office, and later as part of an access route to the St. Gotthard's Tunnel, the two villages merged and grew.Chiasso's history and development were strongly influenced by its unique location. In its early history, a castle was built in Chiasso as part of the extended fortifications of the city of Como. It was a suburb of Como, until 1416 when it was incorporated into the Pieve of Balerna and given to the Rusca family to manage. The houses in the village centre were owned by the Albrici family and were granted imperial privileges. Chiasso had become an independent community sometime before 1552. In the contemporary documents, it is mentioned as Clasio tabernarum referring to its function as a transit point.
Boffalora is mentioned in 1536 as a municipality and kept its independence until the second half of the 17th century. They became a single parish in either 1657 or 1677.
Chiasso's church belonged to the Pieve of Zezio, from which it withdrew in the 16th century. In 1888, Boffalora separated from the parish. It became the seat of an archpriest in 1928. The Church of San Vitale, first mentioned in 1227, was rebuilt in 1934.
In the 15th century, Chiasso was known for its horse market. But the market ended after the invasion of the Swiss Confederation and the march through Chiasso in the War of the League of Cambrai in 1510. In the late 16th century, Chiasso had a smaller population than other municipalities of the Mendrisiotto valley. The village survived through its role as a border town along with income from agriculture and paper mills. In the 19th century, tobacco and silk factories moved into the town.
The construction of the railway along with income from customs induced an economic and demographic recovery in Chiasso. In 1874 the railway line Lugano-Chiasso opened, followed in 1876 by one running to Como.
In 1910, the Mendrisio electric tramway opened, linking a northern terminus in Riva San Vitale with Capolago, Mendrisio, Balerna and Chiasso. The section of the line in Chiasso closed in 1950 and was replaced by a bus service.
Today, a large part of the town is devoted to Chiasso's international railway station and related customs. There is also a sizeable customs area for traffic passing by road and motorway.
Chiasso offers also a lot of customs-related services. A considerable source of revenue for the town is Italians crossing the border to buy certain goods more cheaply in Switzerland, particularly cigarettes and petrol. It is also a banking centre for Italian clients wishing to keep money within the Swiss banking system.
Starting in 1950, Chiasso became an important financial centre and the economic centre of the Mendrisio region; hence rapid population growth. Since the 1980s, however, population and jobs, especially in the service sector, have shifted into neighbouring communities.
The pedestrian zone
From 2001 to 2005, a new pedestrian zone was created, stretching from the customs area to the municipal building. An enlargement of this zone was proposed by the local administration and put to a public referendum on 24 September 2006.Pedrinate
was first mentioned in 1291 as Pedrenate, but Roman ruins near the village church indicate a much longer history. It was mentioned in 1335 as part of the village cooperative of Seseglio. The village church of S. Stefano is first mentioned in 1545 and was part of the Balerna parish until the 17th century.Pedrinate municipality was aggregated in the Chiasso municipality in 1975, along with Seseglio. It is located above Chiasso, on the Penz hill. Pedrinate is the most southern village in Switzerland.
Around Pedrinate there are some vineyards.
Seseglio
Seseglio is on the northern boundary of Chiasso municipality.Geography
Chiasso has an area,, of. Of this area, or 30.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 49.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 36.4% is settled, or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.8% is unproductive land.Of the built-up area, industrial buildings made up 1.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 18.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 14.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.7%. Of the forested land, 47.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.9% is used for growing crops, 4.3% is used for orchards or vine crops, and 18.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is in the Mendrisio district, on the Italian border. Since Pedrinate merged into Chiasso in 1976, it has been the most southerly municipality in Switzerland.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent lion passant holding a letter C gules standing on a carriage entrance azure. The carriage entrance refers to Chiasso location of the ancient road coming from Como and giving access to several places from Chiasso.Demographics
Chiasso has a population of. , 36.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. In 1997–2007 the population changed at a rate of −2.8%.Most of the people speak Italian ; German is second most common and Albanian is third. Of the Swiss national languages, 196 speak German, 71 people speak French, 7,048 people speak Italian, and 4 people speak Romansh. The remainder speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.0% male and 53.0% female. The population was made up of 2,226 Swiss men, and 1,420 non-Swiss men. There were 2,774 Swiss women, and 1,343 non-Swiss women.
In there were 42 live births to Swiss citizens and 26 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in the same time span, there were 63 deaths of Swiss citizens and 27 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 21 while the foreign population decreased by 1. There was 1 Swiss man who immigrated back to Switzerland and 3 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 104 non-Swiss men and 94 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 was a decrease of 47 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 108 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.8%.
The age distribution,, in Chiasso is; 567 children or 7.3% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 586 teenagers or 7.5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 790 people or 10.2% of the population are 20–29 years old. 1,118 people or 14.4% are between 30 and 39, 1,215 people or 15.7% are between 40 and 49, and 1,008 people or 13.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population is 996 people or 12.8% of the population are 60–69 years old, 841 people or 10.8% are 70–79, there are 642 people or 8.3% who are over 80.
, there were 3,774 private households in the municipality and an average of 2. persons per household. there were 313 single-family homes of a total of 940 inhabited buildings. There were 336 multi-family buildings, along with 193 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing and 98 other use buildings that also had some housing. Of the single-family homes, 11 were built before 1919, while 38 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single-family homes were built between 1919 and 1945.
there were 4,498 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 1,692. There were 316 single-room apartments and 493 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 3,763 apartments were permanently occupied, while 181 apartments were seasonally occupied and 554 apartments were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 3.5%. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.4 new units per 1000 residents.
the average price to rent an average apartment in Chiasso was 873.89 Swiss francs per month. The average rate for a one-room apartment was 491.07 CHF, a two-room apartment was about 646.96 CHF, a three-room apartment was about 806.94 CHF and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 1544.67 CHF. The average apartment price in Chiasso was 78.3% of the national average of 1116 CHF.
The historical population is given in this chart:
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bar:1685 from:start till:315 text:"315" color:CH
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bar:1850 from:start till:1265 text:"1,265" color:CH
bar:1860 from:start till:1696 text:"1,696" color:BO
bar:1870 from:start till:1756 text:"1,756" color:BO
bar:1880 from:start till:1956 text:"1,956" color:BO
bar:1888 from:start till:2841 text:"2,841" color:BO
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bar:1970 from:start till:8868 text:"8,868" color:CH
bar:1980 from:start till:8583 text:"8,583" color:TO
bar:1990 from:start till:8212 text:"8,212" color:TO
bar:2000 from:start till:7720 text:"7,720" color:TO
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