Cureglia is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
History
Cureglia is first mentioned in 1335 as Curea or Curilia.
In 1468, the village of Comano, which belonged to Cureglia, broke away from the parish of Lugano. Cureglia became an independent parish in 1594. The parish church of S. Cristoforo, was first mentioned in 1420. In the 19th century it was totally rebuilt. The Chapel of S. Maria del Buon Consiglio was built in the 18th century.
The village was predominantly agricultural and produced mostly wine and cheese. However, a number of craftsman families, including the Caresana, Rinaldi, Saroli, Tarilli and Brilli, moved away in the 16th and 17th centuries for work in other European countries. Successful members of the families moved back to the village and built large homes, which are still standing in the village. The progressive urbanization of the surrounding area of Lugano and the establishment of the television studios in Comano favored a rapid increase in population. From 1950 to 2000, the number of residents quadrupled and housing was built outside the old village core.
Geography
Cureglia has an area, , of . Of this area, or 46.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 45.3% is settled (buildings or roads).
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 34.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.8%. Out of the forested land, 38.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.4% is used for growing crops and 34.9% is used for alpine pastures.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, at the watershed between Val Vedeggio and Valle del Cassarate.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a hatsable with a feather gules.
Demographics
Cureglia has a population () of . , 15.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 2.1%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (87.8%), with German being second most common (7.7%) and French being third (2.1%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 94 speak German, 26 people speak French, 1,070 people speak Italian, and 1 person speaks Romansh. The remainder (28 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.0% male and 50.0% female. The population was made up of 546 Swiss men (41.8% of the population), and 107 (8.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 567 Swiss women (43.4%), and 87 (6.7%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 20 live births to Swiss citizens and were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 16 while the foreign population decreased by 2. There was 1 Swiss man and 2 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss man and 9 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 35 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 13 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.8%.
The age distribution, , in Cureglia is; 140 children or 10.7% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 141 teenagers or 10.8% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 140 people or 10.7% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 207 people or 15.8% are between 30 and 39, 191 people or 14.6% are between 40 and 49, and 181 people or 13.8% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 165 people or 12.6% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 95 people or 7.3% are between 70 and 79, there are 47 people or 3.6% who are over 80.
, there were 497 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. there were 217 single family homes (or 66.6% of the total) out of a total of 326 inhabited buildings. There were 61 two family buildings (18.7%) and 39 multi-family buildings (12.0%). There were also 9 buildings in the municipality that were multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose).