Lumino is a municipality in the district of Bellinzona in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
History
Lumino is first mentioned in 1168 as locus Lugomini. In German it used to be known as Lugmin. The convenient location at the entrance to the Val Mesolcina and the ancient fortifications in the neighborhood indicate that there was an early settlement. The assets of the Bishop of Como in Lumino were given to Capitanei of Locarno in the 12th century. It is listed as part of the County of Bellinzona in 1335. By 1242 it was already part of a community with Castione, which was dissolved in 1818. Several properties and the tithe belonged to the parish church of Bellinzona. The Church of St. Mamette was first mentioned in 1237 and became a parish church before 1591. The border between Lumino and the Graubünden village of San Vittore was finalized, after centuries of dispute, in 1776. During construction of the new roadway over the San Bernardino Pass in 1818, the cantonal authorities forbade the inhabitants of Lumino from making improvements on the road between the Moesa bridge and the border with Graubünden. In the last decades of the 20th century, the construction of many new houses (in 2000, 73% of the working population worked outside the municipality) and the resettlement of a small but thriving industry changed the village from a small farming village.
Geography
Lumino has an area, , of . Of this area, or 10.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 76.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 4.1% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 73.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.1% is used for growing crops, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops and 2.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 3.1% is unproductive vegetation.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules Leaves issuant from an Amphora Or and Azure a Lion rampant Or a Crescent in canton and Overall a Bend Gules. The arms of the municipality are those of the architect Marco Mades, a citizen of Lumino, who became famous for his works of art in Rome.
Demographics
Lumino has a population () of . , 14.2% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 6.9%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian(90.3%), with German being second most common ( 4.4%) and Albanian being third ( 1.8%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 50 speak German, 10 people speak French, 1,018 people speak Italian, and 3 people speak Romansh. The remainder (46 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.6% male and 52.4% female. The population was made up of 512 Swiss men (39.1% of the population), and 111 (8.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 601 Swiss women (45.9%), and 85 (6.5%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 12 live births to Swiss citizens and 3 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 7 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population increased by 1. There was 1 Swiss man and 2 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 4 non-Swiss men who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was an increase of 49 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 12 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.0%.
The age distribution, , in Lumino is; 145 children or 11.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 123 teenagers or 9.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 136 people or 10.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 181 people or 13.8% are between 30 and 39, 227 people or 17.3% are between 40 and 49, and 170 people or 13.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 166 people or 12.7% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 99 people or 7.6% are between 70 and 79, there are 62 people or 4.7% who are over 80.