Porza is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
History
Porza is first mentioned around 1297−99 as Porza.
1907-08 several cremation graves along with grave goods from the Iron Age were discovered. During the Middle Ages the Benedictine abbey of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro owned land in Porza. On a hill northeast of Porza was Trevano castle, which was probably built in the 12th century by the Bishop of Como. It was owned by the Brocchi family, from Como and later by the Trevano and Quadri families. On the castle's foundations a villa was built in 1871. During the Belle Époque the glamorous and wealthy met here, and musicians from across Europe presented themselves to give concerts. In 1934, the district purchased the villa. It was demolished in 1961 and replaced with a school, which is now part of the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana (university of Italian Switzerland).
Porza's church was under the parish church S. Lorenzo in Lugano until 1468, followed by the parish of Comano. It became an independent parish in 1647. The Church of SS. Bernardino e Martino dates from the 16th century and was restored 1974.
Historically, the local economy relied on farming as well as craftsmen (Maestranze) emigrating to other countries. At the beginning of the 21st century, it has become a residential community for the agglomeration of Lugano. Since the 1960s, a substantial proportion of the population comes from abroad or the rest of Switzerland. In the valley along the Cassarate river, an industrial and trade development zone has grown up. In 1992−95, a skating rink was built in Resega near the river. In 2000, about three-quarters of the workforce commutes.
Geography
Porza has an area, , of . Of this area, or 43.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 41.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 43.0% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 1.9% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.5% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 29.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.2%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.5% of the area Out of the forested land, 38.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.8% is used for growing crops, while 3.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 29.1% is used for alpine pastures.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, north-west of Lugano. It consists of the village of Porza and the hamlets of Vira, Trevano and Belvedere in along the hills, as well as Cornaredo and Resega in the valley.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a sun in splendor and a base serrated both or.
Demographics
Porza has a population () of . , 19.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 10.8%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (83.2%), with German being second most common (10.1%) and French being third (2.2%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 136 speak German, 30 people speak French, 1,122 people speak Italian, and 2 people speak Romansh. The remainder (58 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. The population was made up of 586 Swiss men (38.7% of the population), and 159 (10.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 631 Swiss women (41.7%), and 139 (9.2%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 18 live births to Swiss citizens and 2 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 14 while the foreign population increased by 1. There were 2 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 8 non-Swiss men and 3 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 31 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of 1.8%.