Melide is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

The village lies very close to the mountain Monte San Salvatore and is directly on the Lake of Lugano.

Melide is known for Swissminiatur, a museum that shows famous buildings in Switzerland presented in miniature form.

As the excavations of 1991-92 showed, the parish church of SS Quirico e Giulitta developed in several construction stages during the 6th and 7th Centuries.

[3] In 1555 the Swiss Confederation Tagsatzung granted Melide, Bissone and Morcote a monopoly on the sale of fish in Lugano.

The rest of the income for the village comes from the emigration of artisans and artists, including the Fontana and Castelli families.

After the construction of the main road in 1818, a ferry opened in the settlement of La Punta the following year.

The ferry helped the economic development of the village until the construction of the Melide causeway between 1844 and 1847.

The 817 meters (2,680 ft) long structure added a railroad line in 1874 and since the second half of the 1960s, a highway.

In the 19th century various manufacturers of tobacco, alcohol, bells, boats, soap and ink opened.

[3] Melide has an area, as of 1997[update], of 1.67 square kilometers (0.64 sq mi).

It consists of the village of Melide and, since 1863, part of Capo San Martino.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure an anchor cabled or.

[7] The age distribution, as of 2009[update], in Melide is; 150 children or 9.2% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 121 teenagers or 7.4% are between 10 and 19.

[8] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][13] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 39.04% of the vote.

[14] In the 2007[update] Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 904 registered voters in Melide, of which 566 or 62.6% voted.

[17] From the 2000 census[update], 1,167 or 77.7% were Roman Catholic, while 145 or 9.7% 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.

[citation needed] The upper secondary school includes several options, but at the end of the upper secondary program, a student will be prepared to enter a trade or to continue on to a university or college.

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