Corippo
Encyclopedia
Corippo is a municipality
in the district of Locarno
in the canton
of Ticino
in Switzerland
.
With a population of just 17 , it is the smallest municipality in Switzerland. Despite this, it possesses the trappings of communities many times its size: an official website (www.corippo.ch), its own coat of arms
, a village church, a restaurant
, and a mayor
who leads a town council
consisting of three local citizens. The village has maintained its status as an independent entity since its incorporation in 1822.
Corippo lies in the Verzasca valley some 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from Locarno
at the north end of the artificial Lake Vogorno, and 20 km from the border with Italy
. The houses are built from the local Ticino granite
with slate roofs and have changed little for several hundred years, leading the Italian writer Piero Bianconi to describe Corippo as "Verzasca's gentlest village". Its early 17th century Church of the Blessed Virgin Annunciata (later the Blessed Virgin Carmine) was extended in the late eighteenth century. Corippo's architectural value has caused the entire village centre to be placed under a conservation order, and in 1975 the European Architectural Heritage Congress named the village as an "exemplary model" for historical preservation.
Corippo was originally part of the larger parish
and commune of Vogorno
(though maintaining a certain degree of autonomy), before becoming a fully independent municipality in 1822. The village first became connected to the wider world in 1883 when a road was built linking it to the Verzasca valley road.
Depopulation has been a long-standing problem of the commune as scarceness of agricultural resources has driven the inhabitants, historically farmers and herdsmen, to move out to more populated areas, and within the last hundred and fifty years the village census
has declined by over 94%.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.1%. Out of the forested land, 51.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.8% is used for growing crops. Of the water in the municipality, 2.5% is in lakes and 1.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 17.5% is unproductive vegetation and 6.0% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Locarno district, on the western slope of the Verzasca valley, above the lake. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Corippo.
of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a chamois sable stantant on a coupeaux vert.
(86.4%), with the rest speaking German
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 53.3% male and 46.7% female. The population was made up of 7 Swiss men (46.7% of the population), and 1 (6.7%) non-Swiss man. There were 7 Swiss women (46.7%), and 0 non-Swiss women. In there was 1 death of Swiss citizens. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was a decrease of 1 which represents a population growth rate of -5.3%.
The age distribution, , in Corippo is; there are 0 children and teenagers between 0 and 19 years old. Of the adult population, no one is between 20 and 29 years old. 1 person is between 30 and 39, 1 person is between 40 and 49, and 1 person is between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 5 people or 33.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 4 people or 26.7% are between 70 and 79, there are 3 people or 20.0% who are over 80.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.7 which is more people per room than the cantonal average of 0.6 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 54.5% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 11 private households in the municipality, and an average of 1.9 persons per household. there were 66 single family homes (or 98.5% of the total) out of a total of 67 inhabited buildings. There was also 1 building in the municipality that was a multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose).
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. there were 67 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 2 room apartment of which there were 30. There were 15 single room apartments and apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 11 apartments (16.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 56 apartments (83.6%) were seasonally occupied. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following table:
the most popular party was the Ticino League
which received 38.46% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
(36.54%), the SP
(7.69%) and the SVP
(7.69%). In the federal election, a total of 13 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 72.2%.
In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 18 registered voters in Corippo, of which 12 or 66.7% voted. 1 blank ballot was cast, leaving 11 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD
+GenGiova which received 5 or 45.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the LEGA
(with 3 or 27.3%), the PS
(with 1 or 9.1%) and the SVP
(with 1 or 9.1%).
In the Consiglio di Stato election, the most popular party was the PPD which received 5 or 41.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the LEGA (with 3 or 25.0%), the SSI (with 2 or 16.7%) and the PS (with 1 or 8.3%).
, there were 6 workers who commuted away from the municipality. Of the working population, 0% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.7% used a private car.
and 1 person belonged to another church (not listed on the census).
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...
in the district of Locarno
Locarno (district)
The district of Locarno is a district of Canton Ticino, Switzerland. It has a population of .-Geography:...
in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
With a population of just 17 , it is the smallest municipality in Switzerland. Despite this, it possesses the trappings of communities many times its size: an official website (www.corippo.ch), its own coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
, a village church, a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
, and a mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
who leads a town council
Town council
A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....
consisting of three local citizens. The village has maintained its status as an independent entity since its incorporation in 1822.
Description
Locarno
Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000...
at the north end of the artificial Lake Vogorno, and 20 km from the border with Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The houses are built from the local Ticino granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
with slate roofs and have changed little for several hundred years, leading the Italian writer Piero Bianconi to describe Corippo as "Verzasca's gentlest village". Its early 17th century Church of the Blessed Virgin Annunciata (later the Blessed Virgin Carmine) was extended in the late eighteenth century. Corippo's architectural value has caused the entire village centre to be placed under a conservation order, and in 1975 the European Architectural Heritage Congress named the village as an "exemplary model" for historical preservation.
Corippo was originally part of the larger parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
and commune of Vogorno
Vogorno
Vogorno is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The village is located above Lago di Vogorno, a reservoir formed by the Verzasca Dam.-Geography:...
(though maintaining a certain degree of autonomy), before becoming a fully independent municipality in 1822. The village first became connected to the wider world in 1883 when a road was built linking it to the Verzasca valley road.
Depopulation has been a long-standing problem of the commune as scarceness of agricultural resources has driven the inhabitants, historically farmers and herdsmen, to move out to more populated areas, and within the last hundred and fifty years the village census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
has declined by over 94%.
History
Corippo is first mentioned in 1224 as Culipo. In 1374 it was mentioned as Quorippo.Geography
Corippo has an area, , of 7.73 square kilometres (3 sq mi). Of this area, 0.07 km² (0.0270271511014775 sq mi) or 0.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.95 km² (1.9 sq mi) or 64.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.33 km² (0.127413712335537 sq mi) or 4.3% is either rivers or lakes and 1.81 km² (0.698844907052488 sq mi) or 23.4% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.1%. Out of the forested land, 51.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.8% is used for growing crops. Of the water in the municipality, 2.5% is in lakes and 1.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 17.5% is unproductive vegetation and 6.0% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Locarno district, on the western slope of the Verzasca valley, above the lake. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Corippo.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a chamois sable stantant on a coupeaux vert.
Demographics
Corippo has a population of . , 5.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -34.5%. Most of the population speaks ItalianItalian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
(86.4%), with the rest speaking German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 53.3% male and 46.7% female. The population was made up of 7 Swiss men (46.7% of the population), and 1 (6.7%) non-Swiss man. There were 7 Swiss women (46.7%), and 0 non-Swiss women. In there was 1 death of Swiss citizens. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was a decrease of 1 which represents a population growth rate of -5.3%.
The age distribution, , in Corippo is; there are 0 children and teenagers between 0 and 19 years old. Of the adult population, no one is between 20 and 29 years old. 1 person is between 30 and 39, 1 person is between 40 and 49, and 1 person is between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 5 people or 33.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 4 people or 26.7% are between 70 and 79, there are 3 people or 20.0% who are over 80.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.7 which is more people per room than the cantonal average of 0.6 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 54.5% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 11 private households in the municipality, and an average of 1.9 persons per household. there were 66 single family homes (or 98.5% of the total) out of a total of 67 inhabited buildings. There was also 1 building in the municipality that was a multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose).
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. there were 67 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 2 room apartment of which there were 30. There were 15 single room apartments and apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 11 apartments (16.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 56 apartments (83.6%) were seasonally occupied. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following table:
| year | population |
|---|---|
| 1669 | 41 Households |
| 1795 | 269 |
| 1850 | 294 |
| 1900 | 196 |
| 1950 | 73 |
| 2000 | 22 |
| 2004 | 17 |
Sights
The entire villaggio of Corippo is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage SitesInventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...
Politics
In the 2007 federal electionSwiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the Ticino League
Ticino League
The Ticino League is an isolationist, national conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of Ticino.In 1991, after some public campaigning in the Sunday journal Mattino della Domenica against political power and use of public money, the editor Giuliano Bignasca and the...
which received 38.46% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
(36.54%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(7.69%) and the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
(7.69%). In the federal election, a total of 13 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 72.2%.
In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 18 registered voters in Corippo, of which 12 or 66.7% voted. 1 blank ballot was cast, leaving 11 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PPD
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
+GenGiova which received 5 or 45.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the LEGA
Ticino League
The Ticino League is an isolationist, national conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of Ticino.In 1991, after some public campaigning in the Sunday journal Mattino della Domenica against political power and use of public money, the editor Giuliano Bignasca and the...
(with 3 or 27.3%), the PS
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(with 1 or 9.1%) and the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
(with 1 or 9.1%).
In the Consiglio di Stato election, the most popular party was the PPD which received 5 or 41.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the LEGA (with 3 or 25.0%), the SSI (with 2 or 16.7%) and the PS (with 1 or 8.3%).
Economy
, Corippo had an unemployment rate of 0%. , there were 3 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 1 business involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector or tertiary sector. There were 9 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 22.2% of the workforce., there were 6 workers who commuted away from the municipality. Of the working population, 0% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.7% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 21 or 95.5% were Roman Catholic, while 0 belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
and 1 person belonged to another church (not listed on the census).
Further reading
-
- An alpine microterritory. Corippo from the 12th to the 18th century