Lamone is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
History
Lamone is first mentioned in 854 as Namonni. In 1295 it was mentioned as Lamono.
A prehistoric stone bowl was discovered on San Zeno hill. The first records of the village record properties and feudal rights in Lamone in the 9th century. These rights were probably held by the Benedictine Abbey of St. Ambrose in Milan and Como Cathedral. In the 15th century, the Duke of Milan acquired some of these rights. Other landholders included; in 1423, the hospital of S. Maria of Lugano, the S. Giuseppe Hospital and in 1514, the monastery of Santa Maria del Carmelo in Piacenza. In 1529, the rights of San Giuseppe and the Monastery of Santa Maria del Carmelo transferred to the Laghi family of Lugano.
The parish of Lamone (which also included Cadempino) is acknowledged as an independent parish in 1468. In 1758 it was elevated to a provostship. The Church of S. Andrea is mentioned for the first time in 1468, but it is probably from the 12th to the 13th century. In 1612 and again in the 19th century it was rebuilt. The bell tower dates from the Roman era. Next to the Oratory of St. Zeno, from the late 15th century, are the remains of a hermitage from 854.
The grazing rights that Lamone and Cadempino shared in the alpine meadows of Traverno and Guzzala, were granted to Isone in 1507. centuries of border disputes with Cadempino were finally resolved in 1887. Formerly the inhabitants of the village lived on agriculture and from money sent back by emigrants. A mill is first mentioned in 1619. Between the 18th century and about 1950 there was a sawmill and a sand quarry at Valeggia. The bridge over the Vedeggio river in Ostarietta was built in 1806–12 when the Lugano-Cadenazzo road was built. The bridge connects Lamone with the major roads and residential area on the right bank of the river. The river was redirected and put into a channel between 1906 and 1911. The village train station was built in 1923. Most of the industrial and commercial enterprises are concentrated in this flat area, along the river and the highway. The industrial growth was responsible for a large increase in population between 1950 and 1970.
Geography
Lamone has an area, , of . Of this area, or 28.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 44.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 37.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.6% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 6.5% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 14.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 15.1%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 39.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.5% is used for growing crops, while 6.5% is used for orchards or vine crops and 14.0% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Lugano district, between San Zeno hill and the left bank of the Vedeggio river. It consists of the linear village of Lamone and the hamlet of Ostarietta.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a saltire or and in base a church argent roofed gules on a mount vert issunat from base. The St. Andrew cross alludes to the patron saint of the parish church, while the church is for the chapel dedicated to St. Zeno built on the top of a hill which was a hermitage until 1832.
Demographics
Lamone has a population () of . , 37.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 7.9%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (86.4%), with German being second most common (4.3%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (2.7%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 68 speak German, 21 people speak French, 1,351 people speak Italian, and 6 people speak Romansh. The remainder (118 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female. The population was made up of 464 Swiss men (28.9% of the population), and 311 (19.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 552 Swiss women (34.4%), and 279 (17.4%) non-Swiss women.