Pura is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
History
Pura is first mentioned around 751–760, though this is found in a 17th-century copy of the original.
In the Middle Ages several institutions such as the monastery of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, Como Cathedral, Disentis Abbey and the monastery of Agno possessed property or land in Pura.
The village was part of the Agno parish until 1603 when it became a separate parish. The parish church of San Martino was first mentioned in 1352. It was rebuilt in 1580 and expanded between 1642 and 1658.
The village economy was based mainly on agriculture, livestock and the dairy industry. The dairy cooperative opened in 1890. Due to limited farming land many of the residents emigrated in the 19th century. The majority of them went to Italy to work as brickmakers. In the 1960s, a strong construction boom began. By 2000, approximately three quarters of the working population are commuters, especially to Lugano.
Geography
Pura has an area, , of . Of this area, or 22.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 75.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 17.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.7% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 14.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.0%. Out of the forested land, 69.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 4.9% is used for growing crops, while 3.0% is used for orchards or vine crops and 14.1% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.3% is in lakes and 0.3% is in rivers and streams.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, on a terrace above the Magliasina, in the mid-Malcantone valley. It consists of the village of Pura and the hamlets of Magliasina and Moriscio.
Pura lies nestled in chestnut tree covered slopes of the Malcantone region of Ticino. Pura overlooks Lake Lugano and boasts impressive views of the mountains Monte Bre, Monte San Salvatore and Monte Generoso. Historically the village was covered in vineyards, although with very limited land available for building purposes coupled with the high cost of land has meant that over the years many of the vineyards have largely been built upon. Pura is considered to be a rural area and is only 15 minutes from the center of Lugano and located only 10 minutes from Agno Airport. Pura is only a 15-minute walk into Italy. Being close to the border, border security is important the Swiss, security is provided by border patrols (Guarda di Confine) and even high flying observational drones or UAV's.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or two guns sable in slatire in chief a sieve and in base a horn both azure. The coat of arms comes from the Beroldingen family. Pura was part of the hunting area owned by the family, so the colors are from the family, with hunting symbols added.
Demographics
Pura 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 23.5%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (74.1%), with German being second most common (18.0%) and French being third (3.4%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 187 speak German, 35 people speak French, 771 people speak Italian. The remainder (47 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 46.6% male and 53.4% female. The population was made up of 467 Swiss men (35.8% of the population), and 142 (10.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 599 Swiss women (45.9%), and 98 (7.5%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 8 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 3 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss man and 4 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 38 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.4%.