Prato-Sornico

Prato-Sornico is a former municipality in the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.

[2] Prato and Sornico, along with Broglio, Fusio and Peccia, formed the valley community of Lavizzara.

It contains the rich library of Giulio Giovanni Gerolamo Berna, the archpriest of Locarno.

The parish church of SS Fabiano e Sebastiano in Prato was built in 1487, rebuilt in 1730 and re-consecrated in 1761 by the Bishop of Como.

[2] In the 19th and 20th century, the emigration overseas and into the cities led to a sharp population decline.

In this alpine village at the beginning of the 21st century, one-third of the workforce still works in agriculture.

In the last decades of the 20th century, many vacation homes and tourist infrastructure were built in the village.

The village boundaries include the peak of Pizzo Campo Tencia which is 3,071 m (10,075 ft) high.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent in chief a cloth gules hanging from a sword azure fesswise point to dexter and in base a pot sable.

[5] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks Italian language (96 or 92.3%), with German being second most common (4 or 3.8%) and Spanish being third (2 or 1.9%).

[7] The historical population is given in the following chart:[2][8] There were 50 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 28.0% of the workforce.

[9] From the 2000 census[update], 95 or 91.3% were Roman Catholic, while 3 or 2.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.