Poschiavo is first mentioned in 824 as in Postclave though this comes from a later copy of the original document. In 1140 it was mentioned as de Pusclauio. It was formerly known by the German name of Puschlav. It owes its beauty to the imposing Renaissance style of its courtly 19th century architecture. These palazzi were built by prosperous local residents who had made their fortune abroad, particularly in Spain.
Geography
Poschiavo has an area,, of. Of this area, 19.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 32.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.8% is settled and the remainder is non-productive. Until 2017, the municipality was located in the Poschiavo sub-district of the Bernina district, after 2017 it was part of the new Bernina Region. It is located in the Val Poschiavo, one of the four valleys of the Italian Graubünden, where the official language is Italian. The other valleys are Val Bregaglia, Mesolcina and Calanca. It consists of the village of Poschiavo and numerous hamlets. Poschiavo has its own lake, called Lago di Poschiavo, which is located to the south of the village.
Poschiavo has a population of ; as of 2008, 8.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals and, over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of −3.6%., In 2000 the gender distribution of the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female; while the age distribution, is: 332 people or 10.3% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old; 222 people or 6.9% are 10 to 14 and 122 people or 3.8% are from 15 to 19. Of the adult population, 300 people or 9.3% are between 20 and 29 years; 433 people or 13.4% are 30 to 39; 413 people or 12.8% are 40 to 49 and 422 people or 13.1% are 50 to 59. The senior population distribution is 389 people or 12.1% between 60 and 69 years old; 362 people or 11.2% are 70 to 79; there are 197 people or 6.1% who are from 80 to 89 and 33 people or 1.0% who are from 90 to 99. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 32.2% of the vote; the next three most popular parties were the SVP, the SPS and the FDP. In the town about 69.3% of the population have completed either the non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education. It has an unemployment rate of 1.21%, since 2005 there are 252 people employed in the primary economic sector with about 90 businesses involved in it; 456 people are employed in the secondary sector in which there are 60 businesses; 1,073 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 164 businesses. From the, 2,774 or 86.0% are Roman Catholic, while 283 or 8.8% belong to the Swiss Reformed Church; of the rest of the population, there are nine individuals who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, and fourteen, or about 0.43%, who belong to another Christian church. There are two persons, or approximately 0.06% of the population, who belong to another church not listed on the census; 36, i.e.1.12% of the population belong to no church, because they are either agnostic or atheist, whilst 107 of the total did not answer the question. The historical status of the population is given in the following table:
Year
Inhabitants
1850
2888
1860
2742
1870
2890
1900
3102
1910
3676
1950
4034
1980
3294
2000
3225
2005
3487
Languages
Most of the population speaks Italian as native language, with German being second most common and French being third.; apart from Italian, Lombard is also spoken.
There are ten buildings in Poschiavo that are listed as Swiss Heritage sites of national significance. Three churches and a chapel are listed: S. Maria Assunta, S. Vittore, S. Carlo Borromeo and Vecchio Monastero con cappella monastica di S. Maria Presentata; three houses are also on the lis: Casa Tomé, Devon House, and Li Curt House; finally, there are three buildings, now used as museums; Mulino di Aino, Palazzo De Bassus Mengotti, Palazzo Dorizzi. Casa Tomé is now the Poschiavo town museum, an excellent example of the traditional architecture of the Val Poschiavo; during the Middle Ages it was built as a tower house; by 1450 it had reached its current exterior appearance. While it was built in the village center, it had a structure that more closely matched nearby farm house; today it houses a museum and hosts classes and discussions on traditional farming and food production techniques. The Mulino di Aino presents several pre-industrial trades; this working museum shows how flour was produced from grain, boards from timber and horseshoes from iron. The baroquePalazzo De Bassus-Mengotti was built in 1655 and expanded over the following centuries and today it also houses a museum whose ground floor houses a collection of farm implements. The first floor is used for temporary exhibits and currently it holds a collection of paintings by the local artist Fernando Lardelli; the second floor contains exhibits showing everyday life in the valley and emigration from the same. The Palazzo Dorizzi houses pieces collected by Christen and Dorizzi in India during 1947–57.
Climate
Between 1961 and 1990 Poschiavo had an average of 99.3 days of rain per year and on average received of precipitation; the wettest month was May, during which time itreceived an average of ; during this month there was rain for an average of 11.7 days. The driest month of the year was February with an average of over 11.7 days.
