Miglieglia (; ) is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
History
Numerous, but inconclusive archaeological findings indicate that there may have been a Roman era settlement near the current municipality. On a promontory overlooking the river Magliasina are the ruins known as Castello di Miglieglia. These ruins were interpreted as remnants of an extensive fortification from the late Classical period. Although is in not confirmed archaeologically, it is likely that the ruins are the remains of a fortified refuge, which was destroyed by the Milanese in 1156 during the conquest of the Diocese of Como.
Miglieglia is first mentioned in 1214 as Mullielia. In the Late Middle Ages, Miglieglia, Iseo, Cimo and Aranno formed the Concilium (neighborhood) of S. Maria Giovena. In 1478 the village was destroyed in a fire.
On a hill above the village rises the romanesque-style church of S. Stefano. Probably the oldest part of the church is the bell tower. During the Gothic period, the church was extended. The chancel frescoes are from 1511. The parish was formed in 1621 after the secession of Agno. The new, parish church of St. Stefan is from the 17th century.
Agriculture and livestock formerly dominated the village economy. In the 19th century it was partly depopulated because of emigration to German-speaking Switzerland, northern Italy and America. In the second half of the 19th century a mine operated for a short time. A chair lift opened in 1952 to Monte Lema () and expanded in 1997 with a cable car.
Geography
Miglieglia has an area, , of . Of this area, or 3.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 76.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 2.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 9.9% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.4%. Out of the forested land, 68.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 2.5% is used for growing crops and 1.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 9.7% is unproductive vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, on a terrace in the upper Malcantone valley at the foot of Monte Lema. It consists of the village of Miglieglia and the abandoned village of Tortoglio (first mentioned in 1335 as Tortolio), that was abandoned in the 16th century after an epidemic. The division of Tortoglio's land led to a long running fight with Breno that was not resolved until 1890.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules an oak tree eradicated vert acorned or between a chestnut and a walnut both or. All the symbols (oak, chestnut, walnut) refer to the typical vegetation of the area.
Demographics
Miglieglia has a population () of . , 10.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 12.3%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (80.5%), with German being second most common (10.2%) and French being third (4.2%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 22 speak German, 9 people speak French, 173 people speak Italian. The remainder (11 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female. The population was made up of 117 Swiss men (42.9% of the population), and 17 (6.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 129 Swiss women (47.3%), and 10 (3.7%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 6 live births to Swiss citizens and were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 2 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 Swiss man and 4 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there . The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 10 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of -5.3%.