Bioggio is a municipality in the district of Lugano, in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
The municipality was created in 2004 with the union of old town of Bioggio with Bosco Luganese and Cimo. In 2008, Iseo chose to be part of the municipality and be aggregated with the other old municipalities.
History
Bioggio is first mentioned in 1335 as Biegio. Finds from the Roman era bear witness to the former importance of Bioggio. In 1962 a farm house from the 3rd century was discovered, and in 1992 a market building with baths was discovered. Equally important are the recent discoveries made in the restoration of the chapel of S. Ilario, where the remains of a wooden religious building from the 8th century were found. In the Middle Ages noble families from Comacina and Lugano owned extensive property in Bioggio. The old mansions of the counts of Riva and Rusca, and a country estate for the Avogadro family from Como. The church had extensive holdings as well. In the 13th century the monastery of S. Maria in Torello (Carona) owned numerous rental houses and farms. In the 17th century these holdings were transferred to the monastery of S. Antonio in Lugano. In 1852 this property was confiscated by the Canton and auctioned.
In 1261, the church of S. Maurizio is mentioned. A series of excavations in 1997–98 discovered that the foundations can be dated back to the 5th–6th century. The new parish church rebuilt in 1773–91 in a classicist style, but the tower is from the older church. The S. Ilario chapel on the hill of the same name was extended in 1680 and remained unchanged since then.
Historically, Bioggio was located on the transit axis (Strada Regina) from Ponte Tresa to Monte Ceneri pass. Today, it has highway access and part of the Lugano-Agno airport and a freight station of the Swiss Federal Railways are located in the municipality. Since 1912, it has been served by the regional railway Lugano-Ponte Tresa line. In the 1960s, a major industrial zone was built in the valley. It is now part of the agglomeration between Ponte Tresa and Rivera.
Geography
Bioggio has an area, , of . Of this area, or 20.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 12.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 18.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.3% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.9% of the area Out of the forested land, 9.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 13.1% is used for growing crops, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 5.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, in the lower Vedeggio valley. It consists of the village of Bioggio and the hamlets of Gaggio and Mulini. In 2004 Cimo and Bosco Luganese merged into Bioggio.
Coat of arms
The present coat of arms of the municipality was adopted in 2004, replacing the arms of the three previous municipalities. The blazon, which combines elements from the older arms, is Per pale gules a sword point downwards or and azure an ash tree of the second, in base a barrulet wavy abased argent and in centre base a fleur de lis of the same banded or.
Demographics
Bioggio has a population () of . , 17.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 13.5%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (85.1%), with German being second most common (9.7%) and French being third (1.6%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 118 speak German, 22 people speak French, 1,312 people speak Italian, and 1 person speaks Romansh. The remainder (51 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.1% male and 52.9% female. The population was made up of 912 Swiss men (37.8% of the population), and 225 (9.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,081 Swiss women (44.8%), and 197 (8.2%) non-Swiss women.