Bergün / Bravuogn

Bergün / Bravuogn
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Graubünden (GR)
Region :	Albula
Political community :	Bergün Filisur
Postal code :	7482
former BFS no. :	3521
Coordinates :	776 981  /  166912 coordinates: 46 ° 37 '48 "  N , 9 ° 45' 0"  O ; CH1903:  776 981  /  166912
Height :	1367  m above sea level M.
Area :	145.65  km²
Residents:	503 (December 31, 2016)
Population density :	3 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.berguenfilisur.ch
Bergün / Bravuogn
map

Parish before the merger on January 1, 2018

Bergün / Bravuogn ( German  Bergün, Romansh Bravuogn ^{,? / I} double name officially since 1943, in the local dialect Bargunsegner Brauégn ) is a village in the municipality of Bergün Filisur in the Swiss canton of Graubünden . Until December 31, 2017, it formed its own political municipality together with the villages of Stugl and Latsch as well as the hamlets of Preda (including Maiensäss Naz ) and Tuors Chants .

Bergün is located in the Albula valley at the Albula pass road and on the Albula line of the Rhaetian Railway . In the formerly Romansh-speaking village, which is economically and culturally closely linked to the Engadine , the majority of the speakers now speak German. Bergün is a typical street village . On both sides of the ascending main street there are houses in the Engadine style from the 16th to 18th centuries, with sgraffito facade paintings , bay windows and window bars.

geography

Tuorsbach in Bergün

Historical aerial photo from 3500 m by Walter Mittelholzer from 1923

The municipality covers the entire upper reaches of the Albula including side valleys. The Albula rises from several sources below the Albula Pass and the neighboring Fuorcla Crap Alv to the west . Above a prominent valley step it forms the Lai da Palpuogna , below the Preda basin joins, into which the Val Mulix flows from the left and the Val Zavretta from the right . The river, cut deep into the rocks below Preda, forced the builders of the railway to develop the famous line with several viaducts and spiral tunnels . Below this gorge, at the exit of which the side valley Val Tisch joins the main valley, the street village of Bergün lies at an altitude of 1367 m in a wide hollow. Here flows from right the total of about 10 km long, from the three source valleys Val Plazbi, Val da Ravais-ch and Val Salect resulting Val Tuors one. Just below the village is the key point of the Albula road, which in the Bergünerstein (Crap da Bravuogn) nestles close to the almost vertically sloping rock. At the lowest point in the municipality, at 1,111 meters, the Ava da Stugl flows into a gorge into the Albula from the right . It drains the 8 km long Val da Stugl , an area with extensive alpine meadows. The Tuorsbach flows through Bergün from the south .

The municipality is surrounded by three thousand meter peaks . The western border of the municipality stretches from the Chavagl Grond (2442 m) upstream over the Piz Spadlatscha (2871 m) to the dominant Piz Ela (3339 m) and further south - now as a watershed against the Oberhalbstein - over the peaks of Piz Val Lunga (3078 m) ), Piz Salteras (3111 m), Piz Bleis Marscha (3128 m) to Piz Laviner (3137 m). The subsequent southern border towards the Engadine runs over Piz Bial (3061 m), La Piramida (2964 m) and the two Dschimels (2777 m and 2782 m) to Piz da las Blais (2930 m); this mountain range is only interrupted by the Fuorcla Crap Alv pass .

On the wide, flat Albula Pass, the border is marked by the point Cruschetta about 1 km west of the pass, then to the northeast via Igl Compass (3016 m), Piz Üertsch (3267 m) and Piz Blaisun (3200 m) to Piz Kesch , the forms the highest point in the municipality at 3418 m. To the north is a varied high alpine landscape. The mountain with the peaks Piz Forun (3052 m) and Piz Murtelet (3019 m) is surrounded by high valleys all around; the Fuorcla da Funtauna and Fuorcla Ravais-ch passes lead to the Engadin and Davos .

The Ducangrat, which culminates in Piz Ducan (3,063 m), forms the north-eastern cornerstone of the Bergün area . Starting from Ducan Dador (3020 m), the municipal boundary encompasses the uppermost Val da Stugl and then follows the ridge that slopes steeply on the north side over Maschengrat , Büelenhorn (2808 m) and Stulsergrat to the protruding Muchetta (2623 m).

In addition to the main town, the municipality includes the villages of Latsch (1588 m) and Stugl (Stuls) (1551 m) on the right slope of the valley, Preda (1789 m) at the north portal of the Albula tunnel, the Maiensäss Chants, which has only been inhabited all year round since the railway was built around 1900 , Punts d 'Alp, Tours d' Avant in Val Tuors, Runsolas in Val da Stugl, Sagliaz on Piz Darlux and Naz in the upper Albula valley as well as a number of Alpine settlements . Also in the municipality, in the immediate vicinity of the Albula spring, are the buildings of Crap Alv (German: Weissenstein), at 2026 meters above sea level, which used to be a hostel for the mule-traders on the Albula Pass and, until 1903, when the Albula Railway started operating, a station for the change of stagecoach horses. Alp Weissenstein has been part of ETH Zurich since the 1960s . The university maintains an alpine research station here, especially for farm animals such as cows, sheep, goats and horses. For the grazing of the animals, the researchers have their own pastures and alps such as B. Alp Zavretta and modern stables are available.

In 1997, 21.4% of the municipal area was used for agriculture, the forest took up 20.4%, the settlements 0.8%. 57.5% were considered unproductive.

Neighboring communities are Filisur , Davos , S-chanf , Zuoz (exclave), La Punt-Chamues-ch , Samedan , Bever (exclave) and Tinizong-Rona .

coat of arms

Blazon : Black ibex upright on a red three-mountain in silver , armored in red, holding a blue sword with a golden hilt

Modification of the coat of arms of the House of Gods Association by the court sword and three mountain to indicate the importance of the former court community.

history

Bergün around 1906. Bergün Kurhaus on the left

Around Greifenstein Castle , located in the Filisur municipality, a small domain was established in the 12th century, which came into the possession of the Chur bishop in 1394 . Latsch was mentioned in documents in 1154, Bergün in 1209 and Stuls in 1270. In 1537 Bergün was able to replace the episcopal rights by paying money and thus gained full sovereignty within the church federation. In 1577/90 it joined the Reformation . The Bergün court also included the Filisur , Latsch and Stuls neighborhoods .

In addition to livestock farming, traffic over the Albula Pass and mining formed the basis of life for the place. Using explosives - a first in Graubünden road construction at the time - a new driveway was built through the Bergünerstein in 1696 . Mining and smelting of iron ore ( hematite ) from the rear Val Tisch and Val Plazbi experienced their last heyday around 1840.

When the Albula Railway was opened in 1903, the Bergüns expected a tourist boom that would raise the village to the level of the Upper Engadine health resorts of St. Moritz and Pontresina . The Kurhaus Bergün , built in 1905/06, is evidence of those hopes . The fact that Bergün had to say goodbye to these lofty plans as early as World War I is seen today as a fortunate coincidence, because this way the village was able to preserve its historic townscape unadulterated.

The Latsch and Stuls , which were raised to independent political communities in 1851 , merged with Bergün again in 1912 and 1921, respectively.

Negotiations have been underway since 2014 regarding a merger with the Filisur municipality to form the Bergün Filisur municipality .

legend

The legend of the dwarfs of the cleaved rock is at home near Bergün .

population

Population development
year	1571	1803	1850	1888	1900	1910	1950	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005	2010	2012	2014	2016
Residents	542	495	637 (with Latsch and Stuls)	625	1537	715	608	451	459	480	520	505	487	449	457	503

In the tabulated figures it should be noted that in 1900 those employed in the construction of the Albula Railway were counted, even if they were only temporarily resident in Bergün. The number of inhabitants refers to today's municipality boundaries. Thus, the towns of Latsch GR and Stugl (Stuls) , which were incorporated around the First World War (with a total of around 80 to 100 inhabitants) are included.

languages

Wall inscription on turkey on a house opposite the Reformed Church

In the 2000 census, the main language was German 83.9%, Romansh 10.6%, Italian 3.1%. The Bergün novels speak their own dialect, the Bargunsegner , and the Upper Engadin idiom Putér is written . This dialect was the colloquial language of the residents until well into the 19th century (1880: 80.4%). Shortly afterwards, however, a strong process of erosion began among Romansh speakers (57.62% in 1910). Then the situation stabilized until after the Second World War (53.6% Romansh speakers in 1941). Then a slow decline in Romansh set in until 1980 - a process that has accelerated rapidly since then. This is shown in the following table:

Languages ​​in Bergün / Bravuogn
languages	1980 census		1990 census		2000 census
	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of
German	251	54.68%	350	72.92%	436	83.85%
Romansh	158	34.42%	101	21.04%	55	10.58%
Italian	40	8.71%	21st	4.38%	16	3.08%
Residents	459	100%	480	100%	520	100%

Today, German is the only official language, although 26.7% of the population still understand Romansh.

Origin and nationality

Of the 505 residents at the end of 2005, 444 (= 88%) were Swiss citizens.

economy

In the year 2000 55 people were employed in agriculture, 59 in the manufacturing sector and 157 in the service sector. The town lives mainly from tourism and agriculture. In addition, the residents find employment in local businesses and with the Rhaetian Railway. The largest employer is the wood processing company Florinett Holz AG. An economic use of the iron-containing mineral springs has failed so far.

traffic

Ge 6/6 II of the Rhaetian Railway at the entrance to the Bergün train station

The stations Bergün / Bravuogn and Preda are express train on the UNESCO World Heritage Site belonging Albulabahn (railway Thusis - St. Moritz ) of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB).

The Albulabahn was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Bernina Railway in 2008. The award was given for the route of the railway line in the high mountains, which uses engineering structures such as bridges and viaducts as well as tunnels and galleries, the railway from Thusis over the Albula valley into the Upper Engadin and from there over the Bernina Pass and the Poschiavo to Tirano. The engineering structures are considered to be masterpieces of engineering, which thanks to their stone construction fit perfectly into the landscape, as well as paving the way for further developments in engineering.

In winter there are also special toboggan trains between Bergün / Bravuogn and Preda . A post bus goes to Latsch and Stuls several times a day, and in summer also to Val Tuors .

With a view to the opening of the Albula Railway Museum, the Bergün / Bravuogn train station was rebuilt for CHF 11 million between 2010 and 2011 . In the process, train traffic was switched to full remote control, track 1 was dismantled and track 2 was moved closer to the station building. This made it possible to build two new, wide platforms with partial roofing and facilities for the disabled . A new siding was built to replace track 1 for the toboggan train in winter and wood loading in summer. In addition, a siding was laid for the vehicle hall of the railway museum. This also led to the Rhaetian Railway's travel center being relocated to the Albula Railway Museum in December 2011, with the travel center in the station building being closed.

tourism

overview

Plans for the fashionable spa town of Bergün quickly fell through. Today the village presents itself as a quiet place for family holidays.

In summer there are good hiking opportunities and mountain bike tours in the surrounding valleys. The Preda - Bergün Railway History Trail , the Albula Railway Museum and the open-air swimming pool are particular attractions . In 2013, the railway history educational trail to the Albula railway adventure trail was expanded and extended. Since then it has led from Preda via Bergün to the Landwasser Viaduct near Filisur . Bergün is also the starting point for classic mountain tours, for example to the Kesch Hut , Piz Kesch, Ela Hut , Piz Ela and others of the surrounding three-thousand-meter peaks. In summer, the Darlux double chairlift, which was renovated in 2009, is in operation and leads to the La Diala mountain restaurant at almost 2000 meters above sea level.

Towards Preda

In winter , the longest natural toboggan run in Europe, which runs over 6 km on the Albula Pass road from Preda to Bergün (which is closed to motor vehicles in winter), is used in particular. Tobogganists can rent a toboggan at Bergün train station and let the Rhaetian Railway take them up to Preda. At night the route is illuminated with floodlights. Another toboggan run (around 4 km long) leads from Alp Darlux to Bergün, 576 m below. It is known as the Lauberhorn of toboggan runs and is steeper and narrower than the classic run. For skiers there is the Darlux ski area with 25 km of slopes up to 2552 m, two chair lifts, a ski lift and numerous slopes that are also available to snowboarders. There are also 2 ski lifts in the village near Tect / Zinols for beginners and families. In January there is a winter weekend for weatherproof bike freaks. Then the toboggan run will be temporarily closed for an international mountain bike X-Treme-Down-Hill race.

There are several traditional and one modern hotels in the village. The Kurhaus Bergün , damaged by fire in 1949 and unused for a long time, is also open again.

Bergün has a modern connection to the well-known fictional character Heidi, created by Johanna Spyri : The Falein Maiensässsiedlung and the terrace village Latsch were the locations of the first Swiss Heidi film in 1952 and 1954. Today the Heidiweg leads from Stuls on the Alpweg to Runsolas, then via the Höhenweg to the hut in Falein, in which the Heidi film was set, and from there via Pnez back to Stuls. Display boards along the route provided information about the film. An exhibition about the Heidi film and the shooting can be seen in the Bergün local history museum. Latsch can also be seen in the 2015 film adaptation of Heidi (with Bruno Ganz, among others); likewise the train station of Stugl / Stuls.

Bergün is the transit point of the Swiss Irontrail mountain run .

Bergün on Swiss television

In 1993/1994, Bergün was the main location for the 26-part Swiss television series The Director , with Sabina Schneebeli in the lead role. In the 1994/1995 series broadcast about the head of the tourist office of a mountain community (with intrigues, fighting against mafia-like structures, etc.) the village was called Madruns . Despite the widely acclaimed broadcast in Switzerland (the broadcast on ZDF was delayed and only received a modest response in 1998) the series did not bring the village any further tourist upswing. In 2008 the series was repeated in the summer program on SF 1 .

Photography ban 2017

On May 29, 2017, in the municipality of Bergün, a referendum at the municipal assembly with a large majority issued a ban on photography. In the event of violations, those concerned can be fined five francs, the fine would benefit the protection of the Alps. The legally valid ban was to be understood as a tourism promotion and PR campaign . After an international media coverage, the mayor issued a collective special permit , whereby the ban was not enforced. After all, on July 23, 2017 orf.at reported in an entertaining way about the community-wide and cordial photography ban .

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Bergün Filisur

The reformed church is essentially Romanesque , the ribbed choir and the pointed spire are late Gothic elements. The church was completely painted around 1500. The cycle shows stations from the Passion and Christ with the twelve apostles. The walls were painted before the Gothic windows were designed. At the beginning of the 20th century, the pictures that had been painted over for a long time were uncovered and supplemented.

The center of the lower part of the village is the square tower la Tuor from the 13th century. The tower is often referred to as the Roman tower. It was probably built as the official residence of the Lords of Greifenstein, whose castle was above Filisur . However, the Roman tower received its current appearance later. In the 17th century it was converted into a bell tower and received its baroque "hood". The paintings on the tower date from 1627. Today the tower is used as a community archive and is under special protection as a “cultural asset of national importance”.

The Kurhaus Bergün is an Art Nouveau building with largely preserved or restored furnishings and an original large kitchen, built in 1905/1906 by the Zurich architect Jost Franz Huwyler-Boller (1874–1930). In 2012 it was named “Historic Hotel of the Year” by ICOMOS Switzerland.

The main attraction for railway enthusiasts is the winding lines of the Albula Railway with its viaducts and spiral tunnels .

The Holzweg has been around since 2010. The raw material wood , its origin, extraction and processing are at the center of the pram-friendly path that starts and ends at the Bergholzzentrum Bergün directly on the Albula. With original installations such as a tree trunk telephone, large building blocks made of wooden beams, fragrance shavings made of pine wood or balloon inflation through a “wooden pipe”, children can explore the variety of local softwood in play. The wood path leads from the sawmill through the meadows and forests of Crestota and Zinols above Bergün and was built by the local company Florinett Holz AG with the support of Parc Ela .

Also worth seeing are the Chesa Nicolay, a farmhouse from the 16th century, a town house from the 17th century and a residential building from the 17th century.

• 

  Bergün - view from the north

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  The parish hall and the La Tuor square tower in the center of the village

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  Hostel in Crap Alv on the Albula Pass, mentioned in 1654, new building in 1874

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  Brick factory in Crap Alv from 1860 to 1875

Albula Railway Museum

In June 2012 the Albula Railway Museum was opened in the former Bergün arsenal. It shows the history of the Rhaetian Railway and the associated development in the Albula valley. Before that, in December 2011 the travel center of the Rhaetian Railway was moved from the station building together with Bergün-Filisur Tourism to the Albula Railway Museum.

• 

  View of the Albula Railway Museum, the former conspicuous armory, to the left of the station building in the picture center

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  Entrance to the museum in the form of a ticket hall with the travel center of the Rhaetian Railway and Bergün-Filisur Tourism

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  Detailed view of the 0m gauge model railway system of the museum

The three-story building opposite the station building was built between 1917 and 1919. The RhB Ge 6/6 ^I 407 crocodile locomotive has been standing in front of the museum since November 2011 .

The history of the Rhaetian Railway can be experienced in the museum through historical objects such as rolling stock, components of track systems and pictures and multimedia design media. The Biel University of Applied Sciences installed a simulator in the driver's cab of the "Crocodile", in which the visitor can take a virtual trip from Thusis to Samedan .

The idea of ​​a railway museum came from a train driver on the Rhaetian Railway. Discarded historical rolling stock and dismantled parts of railway systems should no longer be scrapped, given away or sold, but made accessible to the public in a museum. The project was estimated at a total cost of almost 7 million Swiss francs and was implemented jointly by the Canton of Graubünden, the Rhaetian Railway and the Albula Railway Museum Association, which is a member of the Historic RhB Association . The former armory has been carefully renovated and rebuilt. The vehicle hall, which was originally planned as a new building for the armory, will not be realized in the first construction phase for financial reasons. Construction began in spring 2010 and the opening took place on June 2, 2012.

In the immediate vicinity are the historic buildings at the Stugl / Stuls train station, the railway history educational trail and the Landwasser Viaduct and Wiesener Viaduct bridges . Since the disused Stugl / Stuls station is to play an important role in interaction with the Albula Railway Museum, an outbuilding was renovated some time ago.

literature

• Jürg Simonett: Bergün / Bravuogn. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 2004 .
• Erwin Poeschel : The art monuments of the canton Graubünden II. The valleys of Herrschaft, Prättigau, Davos, Schanfigg, Churwalden, Albula valley (= art monuments of Switzerland. Volume 9). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1937.
• Diego Giovanoli, Jürg A. Bossardt, Art History Seminar at the University of Zurich: Bergün / Bravuogn (= Swiss Art Guide. No. 336). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History. Bern 1983, ISBN 978-3-85782-336-7 .

Web links

Commons : Bergün / Bravuogn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Bergün / Bravuogn on the ETHorama platform
• Official website of the municipality of Bergün / Bravuogn
• Local museum
• Website of the Albula Railway Museum
• Website about sledding in Bergün

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bergün gives up mineral water project | My regional portal. In: suedostschweiz.ch. Retrieved April 10, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Bahnonline.ch
3. ↑ Railway Museum website
4. ↑ Bergün - Filisur Ski and Snowboard: piste map, photos, information and more ( memento from December 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Done Photo ban: Bergün is backing down - everything was planned that way, Aargauer Zeitung, June 1, 2017
6. ^ Publicity stunt: Ban on photography in the mountain village , SRF, May 30, 2017
7. ↑ Too beautiful? Swiss mountain village ban photos: ideal landscape could generate envy orf.at, July 23, 2017, called May 23, 2020.
8. ↑ Jürg A. Bossardt and Diego Giovanoli: Bergün / Bravuogn, Schweizerische Kunstführer 1983
9. ↑ Square or Römerturm (today municipal archive)
10. ^ Website of the Bergün Kurhaus
11. ^ Kurhaus Bergün, dining room
12. ↑ Chesa Nicolay
13. ↑ farmhouse
14. ↑ Mansion
15. ↑ House