Castel San Pietro - Geography

Geography

The municipality of Castel San Pietro is located in the district of Mendrisio. It covers much of the land below Monte Generoso, including the summit station of the Monte Generoso Railway, but not the mountain summit itself, which is in the municipality of Rovio. The municipality consists of the village of Castel San Pietro, which is made up of the sections of Corteglia, Gorla, Loverciano, Obino as well as others. Since 2004, the former municipalities of Casima and Monte as well as the settlement of Campora (formerly part of the municipality of Caneggio) have been part of Castel San Pietro.

Castel San Pietro has an area, as of 1997, of 11.83 square kilometers (4.57 sq mi). Of this area, 2.02 km2 (0.78 sq mi) or 17.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.66 km2 (1.80 sq mi) or 39.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.81 km2 (0.31 sq mi) or 6.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km2 (7.4 acres) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.17 km2 (0.066 sq mi) or 1.4% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 36.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.5% is used for growing crops, while 4.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 4.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 1.3% is unproductive vegetation.