Montagnola Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Montagnola Parish, Ticino, Switzerland, ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, parish census, civil census, family history, area history, and military records.



Geography
Montagnola is a small Swiss village in Collina d'Oro municipality situated in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. It is close to the border between Switzerland and Italy and looks over Lake Lugano and the city of Lugano upon it. It belongs to the local parish of Sant'Abbondio Gentilino. In 2004, Montagnola, which was formerly a municipality of its own, merged with Agra and Gentilino to form the new municipality Collina d'Oro.

History
The first mention of Montagnola is in 1226 as Montegnola.

The population history of Montagnola is: 1850 - 551 inhabitants 1900 - 678 inhabitants 1950 - 930 inhabitants 1980 - 1646 inhabitants 2000 - 2092 inhabitants

The merger of the monastic estates of Saint Abbondio in Como probably led to the creation of the Concilium Sancti Abundii (1335) comprising Gentilino and Montagnola with the hamlets of Viglio, Orino, Arasio, Certenago, Poporino, Barca and Scairolo. An inventory of the Comascan convent testifies to the presence of a fortress at Arasio, perhaps located in the center of a castellany whose borders coincided with those of the concilium. Montagnola belongs to the parish of Saint-Abonde de Gentilino. The chapels of Saint-Sylvestre (Arasio) and Saints-Nazaire-et-Celse are mentioned for the first time in 1270 and in 1442 respectively.

Census
(See here for information regarding Ticino census records.)

The 1808 Ticino census for Montagnola can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Montagnola prior to 1875, along with any known soprannomi. For more information about soprannomi, click here.

Related sources
The town's website (in Italian) can be found here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Ticino

Societies
Società Genealogica della Svizzera Italiana (SGSI)