Agno () is a historic town and a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Due to its position on Lake Lugano it is popular with tourists, and hosts summer festivals, with two hotels and several camping grounds. It is served by the Lugano-Agno airport.
The official language of Agno is Italian.
History
Agno is first mentioned in 818 as Anium. It was known by its German name Eng, though this is no longer used.
The visitation records of Bishop Giovanni Antonio Volpe of Como (1571) give a detailed report on the properties of the parishes belonging to the Pieve and the sub-parishes. On Swiss soil it included: Agno, Aranno, Arosio, Astano, Bedigliora, Bironico, Bioggio, Bosco Luganese, Breno, Cademario, Camignolo, Caslano, Castelrotto, Curio, Ison, Magliaso, Medeglia, Mezzovico, Miglieglia, Mugena Muzzano, Neggio, Novaggio, Ponte Tresa, Pura Rivera, Robasacco, S. Abbondio (Gentilino and Montagnola), S. Maria (Iseo and Cimo), Sessa, Sigirino, S. Pietro di Gravesano, Torricella Vernate, Vezio and Vira. The Pieve also included a number of villages, which are now in Italy. These included: Arbizzo, Ardena, Cadegliano, Cremenaga, Cugliate, Fabiasco, Lavena, Marchirolo, Marzio, Viconago.
These holdings of the Bishop of Milan in Agno during the Middle Ages included fishing rights. These rights later went to the Bishop of Como and then to local private ownership. The fishing rights were finally removed by Swiss authorities in 1843.
The Collegiate Church of San Giovanni Battista stands on the foundations of a previous Roman building. Within the church are the relics of the patron saint, San Provino, who was the second Bishop of Como. The oldest village lay at the foot of the church, and later, the settlement extended to the hills and along the streets.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, and is the most important municipality in the Malcantone valley. It consists of the village of Agno and the settlements of Cassina, Mondonico and Serocca.
Transport
The village of Agno is served by Agno station on the Lugano–Ponte Tresa railway. Serocca station, serving the eponymous settlement, is also within the municipality. Both stations are served by regular trains, operating every 15 minutes during weekday daytime, and every half hour at other times. Agno station is also served by an Autopostale bus service to Aranno and Cademario Casa di Cura.
The terminal buildings of Lugano Airport lie within the municipality of Agno, and the airport is sometimes known as Lugano-Agno Airport. The airport is linked to Lugano by a shuttle bus that meets all flights, and is a sign-posted 10-minute walk from Agno station.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess, in chief gules a cross argent and in base argent a fish naiant gules.
Demographics
Agno has a population () of . , 30.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 8.5%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (80.3%), with German being second most common (11.1%) and French being third (2.2%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 406 speak German, 79 people speak French, 2,934 people speak Italian, and 6 people speak Romansh. The remainder (230 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.0% male and 53.0% female. The population was made up of 1,258 Swiss men (30.9% of the population), and 654 (16.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,584 Swiss women (39.0%), and 570 (14.0%) non-Swiss women.
, there were 1,588 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.65%. there were 1,931 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 568. There were 99 single room apartments and 370 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,586 apartments (82.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 305 apartments (15.8%) were seasonally occupied and 40 apartments (2.1%) were empty.
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 25.41% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (21.6%), the Ticino League (20.38%) and the SP (14.88%). In the federal election, a total of 899 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 41.9%.
In the Ticino Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 2,120 registered voters in Agno, of which 1,204 or 56.8% voted. 18 blank ballots and 5 null ballots were cast, leaving 1,181 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 262 or 22.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD+GenGiova (with 237 or 20.1%), the LEGA (with 223 or 18.9%) and the SSI (with 191 or 16.2%).
In the Ticino Consiglio di Stato election, 16 blank ballots and 6 null ballots were cast, leaving 1,181 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the LEGA which received 293 or 24.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 247 or 20.9%), the PPD (with 238 or 20.2%) and the PS (with 164 or 13.9%). Of the working population, 11.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.6% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 2,787 or 76.3% were Roman Catholic, while 402 or 11.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 336 individuals (or about 9.19% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 130 individuals (or about 3.56% of the population) did not answer the question. There were 53 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 60 who attend part-time.
The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields. There were 7 students in the professional program.
, there were 446 students in Agno who came from another municipality, while 131 residents attended schools outside the municipality.