Lodrino is a former municipality in the district of Riviera in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

[2] Remains of fortifications suggest that in the 12th and 13th century a noble family, perhaps from Lombardy, lived in Lodrino.

During the Middle Ages, Lodrino also included the hamlet of Prosito (called Proxedrium in the 13th century).

When the Duke of Milan ceded the Levantine to Uri in 1441, he reorganized his holdings in the Riviera.

In 1496 Lodrino, Prosito and Iragna swore their loyalty to the Swiss Confederation.

The construction of the Gotthard railway required a number of granite quarries to supply stone for the project.

In 1939, the so-called Lona-line (Lodrino-Osogna) was built, a 10 km (6.2 mi) long fortified line with 23 anti-tank forts.

Since 1943, a small military airfield, the Lodrino Air Base, has been in operation.

In the last decades of the 20th century there was major construction activity in the municipality.

[2] Lodrino has an area, as of 1997[update], of 31.5 square kilometers (12.2 sq mi).

Out of the forested land, 54.4% of the total land area is heavily forested, while 11.9% is covered in small trees and shrubbery and 1.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees.

[3] The municipality is located in the Riviera district on the right bank of the Ticino river.

The chisel and hammer represent the quarries that provided employment to many residents of the town.

[7] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks Italian language (1,292 or 88.4%), with Portuguese being second most common (70 or 4.8%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (36 or 2.5%).

[6] The age distribution, as of 2009[update], in Lodrino is; 172 children or 10.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 186 teenagers or 11.3% are between 10 and 19.

[7] The historical population is given in the following chart:[2][11] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 42.9% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 507 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 54.6%.

[12] In the 2007[update] Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 941 registered voters in Lodrino, of which 696 or 74.0% voted.

[7] There were 662 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 34.1% of the workforce.

In the tertiary sector; 13 or 3.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 39 or 10.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 18 or 5.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 0.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 218 or 60.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 35 or 9.7% were in education and 8 or 2.2% were in health care.

[7] From the 2000 census[update], 1,262 or 86.4% were Roman Catholic, while 21 or 1.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

In the lower secondary school system, students either attend a two-year middle school followed by a two-year pre-apprenticeship or they attend a four-year program to prepare for higher education.

The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields.