Foura Chagnoula
| Foura Chagnoula
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| Location: | Canton of Graubünden , Switzerland | |
| Height : | 1475 m above sea level M. | |
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Geographic location: |
811 951 / 184040 | |
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| Show cave since: | Not open to the public. | |
| Lighting: | No. | |
| Level difference: | 28.2 m | |
The Foura Chagnoula ( Ladin for dough hole ) is a cave in Ardez in the Swiss Lower Engadine .
location
The Foura Chagnoula is 1475 m above sea level. A good 800 m east of the village center of Ardez in a rugged, wooded area. A hole about 3 meters in size leads vertically into the 28.2 m deep cave. The hole is about 50 m above the Rhaetian Railway and about 80 m above the main road 27 .
Use of the cave
The cave has been known for centuries and was used as a pet cemetery: dead pigs, oxen, calves, cows and horses were thrown all the way into the opening. Thanks to the height of the cave, despite the large number of dead animals, practically no carcass odor escaped. The top of the Kadaverberg is now 14.7 meters below the opening, the Kadaverberg thus reached about half the height of the cave.
For centuries, the cave exempted the community from providing a wasen place , which is otherwise prescribed in the region , where animals were to be buried at a depth of at least 1.25 m.
Railway construction 1909–1913
The entrance to the cave is located 60 m horizontally from the Bever – Scuol – Tarasp railway line . When the railway line was built from 1909, there were justified concerns that the planned 500 m long Craista tunnel below the Ardez railway station could affect the cave, especially since the cave's dimensions were unknown at that time. In fact, as far as we know today, the cave does not reach down to the level of the tunnel, and a connection between cave and tunnel did not come about.
exploration
The cave was first explored and measured at the beginning of January 1965 by members of the Swiss Society for Speleology . A larger group of locals explored the cave in January 1986.
Otherwise the cave is not accessible to the public. The opening is secured with a man-high fence.
literature
- Jon Claglüna: Cave used as a pet cemetery in Ardez (La Foura Chagnoula). In: Bündner Calendar , vol. 156, 1997, pp. 88–89.
- Jon Claglüna: Ardez - local history . Self-published, Ardez 2001.