Agra is a village and former municipality in the

canton of Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts and its capital city is Bellinzo ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. In 2004 the municipality was merged with the other, neighboring municipalities Gentilino and

Montagnola Montagnola () is a small Switzerland, Swiss village in Collina d'Oro municipality. Located in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, it is close to the border between Switzerland and Italy. It looks over Lake Lugano and the city of Lugano upon it ...

to form a new and larger municipality

Collina d'Oro Collina d'Oro () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Lugano (district), Lugano in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It was formed from the 2004 union of the villages of Agra, Switzerland, ...

.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010

History

The

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Bigogno, which is part of Agra, is first mentioned in 1270 in an inventory of the lands of the monastery of S. Abbondio in Como in the Valle di Lugano. The inventory of Como Cathedral (1298) mentions their

allodial title Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property (land, buildings, and fixtures) that is independent of any superior landlord. Allodial title is related to the concept of land held "in allodium", or land ownership by occupancy and defense ...

s and episcopal loans in Agra as well as possessions of the

Disentis Abbey Disentis Abbey () is a Benedictine monastery in the Grisons, Canton of Grisons in eastern Switzerland, around which the present town of Disentis () grew up. Early history Formerly the date of the foundation of this abbey, attributed to the local s ...

. The same document also mentions the church of S. Tommaso in Agra. The church initially belonged to the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of S. Pietro in

Pambio Pambio is a village and former municipality in the District of Lugano, in the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered ...

and then became an under-parish in 1591. The Chapel of S. Assunta in Bigogno was completed before 1609. In the statutes of Como from 1335, the ''Concilium'' or '' Vicinanza'' of Agra and Premona or Barbengo is first mentioned. In addition to agriculture, the village was once famous for training and sending artisans to Russia along with other European nations. In 1912 a regional

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often in a health ...

opened in the village. It was a residence to for many, especially German-speaking, notables and intellectuals. They published the monthly magazine ''Die Terrasse'' (The Terrace) from the sanatorium. It was closed in 1969 and fell into disrepair.

Location

The village is located at an elevation of at the foot of Monte Crocione. File:Agra 5221 11.JPG, Church of Saint Tommaso File:AgraSwitzerland.JPG, On the right the village Agra File:Agra Broschuere 0007.jpg, Dining room of the former sanatoriums (1950)

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:600 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey unit:year increment:125 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:darkgrey unit:year increment:25 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1591 from:start till:100 text:"100" bar:1850 from:start till:164 text:"164" bar:1900 from:start till:164 text:"164" bar:1950 from:start till:389 text:"389" bar:2000 from:start till:401 text:"401"

References

* {{Authority control Former municipalities of Ticino Villages in Ticino Articles which contain graphical timelines