Cadenazzo is a municipality in the district of Bellinzona, in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 13 March 2005 the formerly independent municipality of Robasacco was absorbed into Cadenazzo.
History
Cadenazzo is first mentioned in 1335 as Catenacii, when the hospitallis de Cadenazio was mentioned. The existence of a medieval castle is in doubt. The collegiate church of San Pietro in Bellinzona owned part of the village by 1438. The chapel of S. Pietro Martire in Cadenazzo may have been built in the 13th century, but the earliest mention of the chapel is from 1363. However, the chapel has not survived into the modern era and its location is unknown. In 1442, Cadenazzo separated from the mother church of Bellinzona joined the parish of the neighboring village of S. Antonino. They remained part of a joint parish until 1830.
Agriculture, once dominant, but not very profitable, is still common in the Magadino valley. Crop yields increased after the correction of Ticino river. Since 1973, Cadenazzo has been home to a branch of the Swiss Federal Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture. Due to some industrial enterprises, shops and warehouses in the vicinity of the train station, Cadenazzo draw commuters from surrounding communities.
Geography
Cadenazzo has an area, , of . Of this area, or 29.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 24.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 14.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.2% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 4.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.1%. Out of the forested land, 22.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.8% is used for growing crops, while 3.8% is used for orchards or vine crops and 4.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 1.1% is unproductive vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Bellinzona district, along a road along the north foot of the Monte Ceneri.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms after 2005 is Azure a pale argent and overall a castellated gateway between two turrets party per pale gules and or. The two previous coats of arms which this replaced were, for Cadenazzo: Azure a pale argent and overall a castellated gateway between two turrets gules; and for Robasacco: Azure an arm embowed vested gules issuant from the dexter holding a moneybag or.
Demographics
Cadenazzo has a population () of . , 36.2% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 18.9%. Most of the population () speaks Italian (81.4%), with German being second most common ( 5.2%) and Albanian being third ( 3.3%).
Of the Swiss national languages (), 92 speak German 27 people speak French, 1,417 people speak Italian, and 1 person speaks Romansh. The remainder (218 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 51.2% male and 48.8% female. The population was made up of 749 Swiss men (31.9% of the population), and 453 (19.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 759 Swiss women (32.3%), and 386 (16.4%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 15 live births to Swiss citizens and 5 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 10 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population increased by 2. There were 2 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country, 2 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country, 13 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 12 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was an increase of 76 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 3 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.3%.