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Mezzovico-Vira

Mezzovico-Vira
Gradiccioli 2008 Panorama.jpg
Coat of arms of Mezzovico-Vira
Coat of arms
Mezzovico-Vira is located in Switzerland
Mezzovico-Vira
Mezzovico-Vira
Mezzovico-Vira is located in Canton of Ticino
Mezzovico-Vira
Mezzovico-Vira
Coordinates: 46°6′N 8°55′E / 46.100°N 8.917°E / 46.100; 8.917Coordinates: 46°6′N 8°55′E / 46.100°N 8.917°E / 46.100; 8.917
Country Switzerland
Canton Ticino
District Lugano
Government
 • Mayor Sindaco
Area
 • Total 10.21 km2 (3.94 sq mi)
Elevation 460 m (1,510 ft)
Population (Dec 2015)
 • Total 1,358
 • Density 130/km2 (340/sq mi)
Postal code 6805
SFOS number 5199
Surrounded by Capriasca, Monteceneri
Website www.mezzovico-vira.ch
SFSO statistics

Mezzovico-Vira is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

A recently discovered stele with inscriptions in northern Etruscan suggests that the area around Mezzovico-Vira was already settled in the pre-Roman era. An archaeological investigation under the parish church of S. Abbondio in 1990, discovered Roman urn graves. The church developed from a small wooden church in the 6th Century to the current baroque building.

In the Early Middle Ages it was a curtis, consisting of the villa (Vira), the vicus in the middle (Mezzovico) and the settlement of Sigirino. In the Middle Ages it belonged to the valley community of Carvina, which included the villages of the upper north end of Vedeggio. The modern municipality of Mezzovico-Vira is first mentioned in 1335 as Medio Vico and Vira.

The political and religious center of the valley was Bironico. Mezzovico and Vira were always one municipality, but separated religiously when the Church of San Antonio in Vira became a parish church in 1838. The parish church of Mezzovico, S. Mamete goes back to a Roman era building has was expanded in the 12th, 15th and 16th Centuries.

Traditional agriculture in the village was based mainly on the use of mountain pastures. In the last decades of the 20th Century; the motorway, the main road and the railway along with a number of buildings for industry and commerce were built in along the valley floor. This development is due to the growth of the agglomeration of Lugano, which spread into the Vedeggio valley, as well as the proximity to the motorway and the Swiss Federal Railways station at Rivera.


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