Caslano is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino, near to the Italian border.
History
thumb|left|Villa Ferretti in Caslano
The center of the village is built within a Roman era fortification. While no trace of the actual fortification still exists, local tradition, the use of Castellano in place names and the compact structure of the once walled enclosure all indicate that the fortress existed. The hamlet of Torrazza was the source of bitter fighting between the Swiss Confederation and the Duchy of Milan. In 1604, the Treaty of Varese decided against the Italian municipality of Lavena Ponte Tresa and finally awarded it to Caslano.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, along the right bank of the mouth of the Magliasina river in Lake Lugano. It consists of the village of Caslano and the hamlets of Magliasina and Torrazza.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a castle argent doors and windows sable and fir tree vert both issuant from a mount of the last in turn issuing from a base wavy azure fimbriated of the second.
Demographics
Caslano has a population () of . , 26.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 13.4%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (75.7%), with German being second most common (15.6%) and French being third (2.2%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 545 speak German, 78 people speak French, 2,646 people speak Italian, and 5 people speak Romansh. The remainder (221 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 46.6% male and 53.4% female. The population was made up of 1,299 Swiss men (32.5% of the population), and 562 (14.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,627 Swiss women (40.7%), and 508 (12.7%) non-Swiss women.
, there were 1,497 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.56%. there were 2,170 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 631. There were 154 single room apartments and 367 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,491 apartments (68.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 581 apartments (26.8%) were seasonally occupied and 98 apartments (4.5%) were empty.
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Sights
thumb|Lake Lugano from Mount Caslano
The entire villaggio of Caslano is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 24.33% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (23.16%), the SP (21.9%) and the Ticino League (14.41%). In the federal election, a total of 1,002 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 43.9%.
In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 2,286 registered voters in Caslano, of which 1,187 or 51.9% voted. 13 blank ballots and 3 null ballots were cast, leaving 1,171 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 265 or 22.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PS (with 230 or 19.6%), the SSI (with 203 or 17.3%) and the PPD+GenGiova (with 193 or 16.5%).
In the Consiglio di Stato election, 15 blank ballots and 3 null ballots were cast, leaving 1,169 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 246 or 21.0% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PS (with 235 or 20.1%), the LEGA (with 231 or 19.8%) and the PPD (with 188 or 16.1%). Of the working population, 14.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.3% used a private car.
Religion
thumb|Church of San Cristoforo
From the , 2,564 or 73.4% were Roman Catholic, while 404 or 11.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 431 individuals (or about 12.33% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 96 individuals (or about 2.75% of the population) did not answer the question. There were 49 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 70 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 10 students in the professional program.
, there were 6 students in Caslano who came from another municipality, while 345 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
In summer the Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano operates a boat service between Lugano and Ponte Tresa that calls at a landing stage in the village.