Coldrerio is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
History
Coldrerio is first mentioned in 852 as Caledrano. In 1170 it was mentioned as Calderario, in 1185 as Caldirera and in 1187 as Coldrario.
Archeological finds in the area provide evidence of a continuous settlement since the Neolithic period. Excavations of the nearby peat bog () in 1870 and 1915-21 revealed traces of a settlement with stilt houses. Later findings are from the Roman era and Early Middle Ages. Caledrano was first mentioned as a village during the Early Middle Ages, as were most of the surrounding settlements. It was mentioned several times in the following centuries in connection with gifts given to religious institutions around Como, including S. Abbondio, S. Fedele and S. Lazzaro Hospital. The gift and property documents mention a castle, the village church and several sharecropping farms. It was part of the County of Seprio and by the late 13th century was listed as a municipality.
In 1593, it broke away from the parish of Balerna to form an independent parish. The current parish church of St. George was built in the 16th century and enlarged several times. It stands in the center of the village. In 1287, the first church of St. George was dedicated on a hill overlooking the village. Today, the cemetery church of S. Gregorio, better known as S. Apollonia, stands on the site of the first church.
The fertile soil of the region allowed the village's population to grow. More recently, Coldrerio has grown as a result of the expansion of Chiasso. About 80% of the working population works outside of the Gem, and many are employees of the Swiss Federal Railways.
Geography
Coldrerio has an area, , of . Of this area, or 68.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 15.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 39.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.8% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 23.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 9.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 5.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.2%. Out of the forested land, 11.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 30.5% is used for growing crops, while 14.6% is used for orchards or vine crops and 23.2% is used for alpine pastures.
The municipality is located in the Mendrisio district, between Mendrisio and Balerna. It consists of the village of Coldrerio and numerous small settlements, of which Villa is the most important.
Demographics
Coldrerio has a population () of . , 18.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 2.9%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (90.3%), with German being second most common (4.5%) and French being third (1.4%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 114 speak German, 35 people speak French, 2,293 people speak Italian, and 3 people speak Romansh. The remainder (93 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. The population was made up of 1,023 Swiss men (38.2% of the population), and 284 (10.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,165 Swiss women (43.5%), and 209 (7.8%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 9 live births to Swiss citizens and 5 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 18 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 9 while the foreign population increased by 3. There were 4 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland and 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 7 non-Swiss men and 17 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population remained the same in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) while the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 7 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.3%.