Peccia

Peccia is one of six small Swiss municipalities which merged in April 2004 to form the commune of Lavizzara, with about 1000 people.

[3] Peccia, together with Broglio, Fusio, Prato and Sornico were part of the comunità or valley community of Lavizzara until 1374.

When the valley community broke up into separate villages, Peccia was the largest in the Lavizzara region.

It included the settlement of Mogno and the Valle di Peccia, which was independent until 1669.

[3] At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the jobs in the village were in the extraction, processing (vessels and stone ovens) and trade in soapstone.

In 1950-56 largest hydroelectric power plants in Switzerland was built in the Valle di Peccia.

[3] Peccia has an area, as of 1997[update], of 54.26 square kilometers (20.95 sq mi).

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a fir tree issuant from a mount vert.

For example, past mayor of Olevano sul Tusciano, was Luigi Peccia.

[6] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks Italian language (161 or 94.2%), with German being second most common (5 or 2.9%) and Portuguese being third (3 or 1.8%).

[8] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][9] There were 64 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 23.4% of the workforce.

[10] From the 2000 census[update], 159 or 93.0% were Roman Catholic, while 2 or 1.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.