Calanca

Calanca is a municipality in the Moesa Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Arvigo, Braggio, Cauco and Selma merged to form the new municipality of Calanca.

History
Arvigo is first mentioned in 1453 as Arvicho.

Braggio is first mentioned in 1419 as Bragio. It was part of the old municipality of Calanca until 1851 when it became an independent municipality.

The church at Cauco is first mentioned in 1497. The village was part of the Squadra di Calanca until 1851 when it became an independent municipality.

The village that became Selma was part of the Squadra di Calanca until 1796. Between 1796 and 1851 it was part of the Calanca interiore municipality. It was first called Selma in 1812, but it wasn't until 1851 that it became an independent political municipality.

Geography
Based on the 2009 survey, the former municipalities that make up Calanca had an area of. Of this area, 3.83 km2 or 10.2% was used for agricultural purposes, while 21.69 km2 or 57.5% was forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.75 km2 or 2.0% was settled (buildings or roads), 0.39 km2 or 1.0% was either rivers or lakes and 11.01 km2 or 29.2% was unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.7%. Out of the forested land, 48.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.4% is pastures and 6.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 12.7% is unproductive vegetation and 16.5% is too rocky for vegetation.

Demographics
The total population of Calanca is.

Historic population
The historical population is given in the following chart:

Sights
The villages of Landarenca, Braggio and Bodio / Cauco are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Weather
Braggio has an average of 97.4 days of rain per year and on average receives 1645 mm of precipitation. The wettest month is May during which time Braggio receives an average of 204 mm of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 12 days. The driest month of the year is December with an average of 55 mm of precipitation over 12 days.

Notable people

 * Roger Sablonier (1941–2010), Swiss historian and writer, University of Zürich faculty