Airolo (Airöö in Lombard, in ) is a municipality in the district of Leventina in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

Geography

thumb|View from halfway up St. Gotthard Pass (before entering the Val Tremola) down toward Airolo and the Leventina valley

thumb|Aerial view by [[Walter Mittelholzer (1931)]]

Airolo is located in Leventina valley and the Lepontine Alps, on the southern flank of the St. Gotthard Pass. Both the Gotthard rail tunnel, on the important Gotthard railway linking northern and southern Europe, and the Gotthard road tunnel, on the A2 motorway, have their southern portal in Airolo. It is the largest municipality in the canton of Ticino, and consists of the village of Airolo and the hamlets of Valle, Madrano, Brugnasco, Nante and Fontana. The municipalities of Airolo and Quinto are considering a merger some time in the future into a new municipality which will be known as Airolo-Quinto.

Airolo has an area, , of . Of this area, or 3.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 21.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 2.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 41.6% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. Out of the forested land, 14.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.2% is used for growing crops. Of the water in the municipality, 1.5% is in lakes and 0.9% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 20.2% is unproductive vegetation and 21.4% is too rocky for vegetation.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure on a base Vert a fir tree Argent issuant and a lion rampant Or.

Demographics

Airolo has a population () of . , 21.5% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of −14.6%.

Most of the population () speaks Italian (85.6%), with German being second most common (3.6%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (3.3%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 57 speak German, 8 people speak French, 1,363 people speak Italian, and 1 person speaks Romansh. The remainder (164 people) speak another language.

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female. The population was made up of 577 Swiss men (37.6% of the population), and 189 (12.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 641 Swiss women (41.8%), and 128 (8.3%) non-Swiss women.

, there were 700 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.

The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 3.31%. there were 1,325 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 3 room apartment of which there were 393. There were 78 single room apartments and 314 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 698 apartments (52.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 585 apartments (44.2%) were seasonally occupied and 42 apartments (3.2%) were empty.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! year

! population

|-

| 1574

| 597

|-

| 1682

| 1,000

|-

| 1785

| 1,237

|-

| 1850

| 1,624

|-

| 1880

| 3,678

|-

| 1900

| 1,628

|-

| 1950

| 1,848

|-

| 2000

| 1,593

|-

|}

: Population during construction of the St. Gotthard Tunnel

Heritage sites

thumb|Forte Airolo

The Hospice Complex on the St. Gotthard Pass with old station, house and barn, the Forte Airolo and Forte Foppa, the prehistoric settlement and Roman era necropolis of Madrano and the prehistoric settlement on the St. Gotthard Pass (known as Alpe di Rodont) are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Airolo and the village of Fontana are listed in the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Church

In 1877 a fire destroyed almost all of the town, including most of the church dedicated to Santi Nazario e Celso, which had been built in the 12th century and is first documented in 1224. The tower, crowned by a double row of twin arches has survived from the Romanesque building. In 1879 the church was rebuilt, under the auspices of an Uri lawyer based in Airolo, Carl Alois (Luigi) Müller, who was married to Genovefa Lombardi, the daughter of Felice Lombardi, Director of the St Gotthard hospice. There is a marble plaque in the church recording his efforts to get the church rebuilt.

St Gotthard Tunnel Memorial

This is a bronze bas-relief by the Ticinese sculptor Vincenzo Vela (1820–1891) commemorating the labourers who died building the tunnel in the 1880s.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 36.19% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (29.1%), the Ticino League (16.16%) and the SP (9.11%). In the federal election, a total of 676 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 64.3%.

In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 1,109 registered voters in Airolo, of which 870 or 78.4% voted. 13 blank ballots and 2 null ballots were cast, leaving 855 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD+GenGiova which received 298 or 34.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 243 or 28.4%), the SSI (with 119 or 13.9%) and the LEGA (with 88 or 10.3%).

In the Consiglio di Stato election, 9 blank ballots and 3 null ballots were cast, leaving 857 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD which received 290 or 33.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 239 or 27.9%), the LEGA (with 140 or 16.3%) and the SSI (with 105 or 12.3%). Of the working population, 5.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 47.4% used a private car.

Ski facilities

thumb|Airolo in winter from the Sasso della Boggia

Airolo is also home to a small ski-resort with of prepared slopes.

Religion

From the , 1,287 or 80.8% were Roman Catholic, while 34 or 2.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 243 individuals (or about 15.25% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 29 individuals (or about 1.82% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Airolo about 61.3% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). There were 19 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 31 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 2 students in the professional program.

, there were 14 students in Airolo who came from another municipality, while 31 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Famous people

  • Felice Lombardi (1791–1863), son of Giuseppe, Ticino cantonal parliament was in 1841 appointed by the Ticino State Council as Head of the Hospice on the Gotthard Pass.
  • Emilio Motta (1855–1920), historian
  • Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) (Citizenship Hospental), painter, son of Alois and Genovefa Müller-Lombardi
  • Giuseppe Motta (1871–1940), Swiss politician (CIP), Bundesrat.
  • Eugenio Corecco (1931–1995), Roman Catholic bishop in Diocese of Lugano in the canton Ticino
  • Giorgio Orelli (1921–2013), Swiss writer, literary critic, translator and lecturer.
  • Giovanni Lombardi (born 1926), Swiss engineer, known for tunnel and dam projects
  • Marco Lombardi (1941–2014), lawyer, former President of the Hockey Club Ambri-Piotta
  • Filippo Lombardi (born 1956), Swiss politician (CVP) and entrepreneur, President of States (2012 and 2013)
  • Katrin Müller (born 1989) is a Swiss freestyle skier, ski crosser
  • Lara Gut (born 1991), skier, lives in Canobbio

See also

  • Bedretto
  • Bedretto Underground Laboratory for Geoenergies
  • Rotondo Granite

References

  • Official website