Julia (river)

Julia
Julia on the Julier Pass
Data
Water code	CH : 289
location	Canton of Graubünden , Switzerland
River system	Rhine
Drain over	Albula  → Hinterrhein  → Rhine  → North Sea
source	small mountain lake below Piz Surgonda 46 ° 30 ′ 22 ″  N , 9 ° 42 ′ 55 ″  E
Source height	2836  m above sea level M.
muzzle	at Tiefencastel in the Albula coordinates: 46 ° 39 '45 "  N , 9 ° 34' 23"  E ; CH1903:  763 338  /  170154 46 ° 39 '45 "  N , 9 ° 34' 23"  O
Mouth height	833  m above sea level M.
Height difference	2003 m
Bottom slope	54 ‰
length	37 km
Catchment area	324.74 km²
Discharge  at the mouth A Eo : 324.74 km²	MQ Mq	10.44 m³ / s 32.1 l / (s km²)
Communities	Surses , Albula / Alvra
in Savognin

The Julia river , in Romansh Gelgia , in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, rises in the area of ​​the Julier Pass ( 2284  m above sea level ) and flows through the valley of Oberhalbstein (Romansh Surses ), which ends with the Crap Ses gorge . With a water flow of around 10.5 m³ / s and a length of around 37 km, the Julia is the largest tributary of the Albula , into which it flows at Tiefencastel .

etymology

The river name is derived both in its German and in its Romansh variant from the pass name Julierpass or Pass digl Gelgia , which in turn goes back to Celtic * julo 'Joch, Pass'. This also includes the German variant of Gilgenwasser , attested in 1524 .

As with many other bodies of water, there are and were also other names for the Julia. In the local dialect of the valley (occupied for the municipalities of Riom , Savognin and Tinizong- Rona) it is called Ragn , i.e. Rhine - like so many other tributaries of this body of water. The name Oberhalbsteiner Rhein was still known in German at the end of the 19th century. In his description of Graubünden, printed in 1742, Nicolin Sererhard also used the name Oberhalbsteiner Landwasser . It should be noted, of course, that ragn or pure in Grisons and in Höchst Alemannic Landwasser (cf. Landwasser (Albula) , under Linguistic ) appear not only as a name but also as an appellative for 'Talfluss'.

Course and valley landscape

The Gelgia gathers from the runoffs of several small moraine reservoirs in the extensive Val d'Agnel, open to the south, below the Piz d'Agnel ( 3205  m above sea level ). When it reaches the valley, left by the glacial transfluence from the Upper Engadin over the Julier Pass, the stream swings west for about five kilometers.

The valley of the Julia, which then extends north-northwest, begins and ends with a cross of traffic routes. At the beginning of the spacious valley landscape of the Oberhalbstein, the road coming down from the Julier Pass meets both the previously more important pass path from the Septimer (Pass da Sett) in the south , as well as the path that runs over the Stallerberg from the western neighboring valley of the Avers Rhine comes down. Where the paths branch, is the place Bivio , mentioned in the 9th century as stabulum bivio ('stable at the road divider').

The Tinizong valley

At the narrow exit of the valley, above the junction of the Julia in the Albula, the castle of Tiefencastel guarded the place where the road from the Julia valley crosses the harder passable Albula valley and rises again to the high valley of Lenzerheide . This valley apparently continues the valley of the Julia to the north in the direction of the Alpine Rhine .

The Julia Valley has two striking valley steps created by Ice Age glaciers . The upper valley step between Rona and Tinizong drops by 180 meters. The valley below is called Sotgôt ('below the forest'), the one above Surgôt ('above the forest'). The lower valley level begins with the rugged rock face of the Crap Ses ('stone rock'), which is also known as Conterser Stein. It separates the Surses ('above the stone') from the Sutses ('below the stone') in the Albula Valley. At this stage, Julia roars down three hundred meters as the crow flies.

Use of hydropower

The Julia is collected at Marmorera in the Lai da Marmorera , a reservoir that was created to generate electricity. The Castiletto earthfill dam, as well as all of the following systems in the Julier Valley, are part of the Mittelbünden power plants , which are part of the power station of the city of Zurich (EWZ). The water from the reservoir is first fed to the Tinizong power plant via pressure tunnels and then to the Tiefencastel Ost power plant , which works in tandem with Tinizong. At the same time, the residual water of the Julia and other tributaries in the Burvagn reservoir are collected and fed to the Tiefencastel West power plant .

At Tiefencastel, the processed water of the Albula is returned, but shortly afterwards it is dammed again at Solas and diverted to generate energy.

source muzzle

Source and mouth of the Julia

bridges

Over 40 bridges cross the Julia.

→ Main article : List of bridges over the Juliet

Web links

Commons : Julia / Gelgia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Geoserver of the Swiss Federal Administration ( information )
2. ↑ Evaluations of the water network. (XLSX) FOEN , December 2013, accessed on August 9, 2017 (listing of Swiss rivers> 30km). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Modeled mean annual discharge. In: Topographical catchment areas of Swiss waters: sub-catchment areas 2 km². Retrieved August 24, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Andrea Schorta: Rätisches Namenbuch, Vol. 2.1, Bern 1964, p. 179.
5. ↑ According to Andrea Schorta: Rätisches Namenbuch, Volume 2.1, Bern 1964, p. 281, and information from the Institut dal Dicziunari Rumantsch Grischun , Chur.
6. ^ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon from 1888 under Albula ; Swiss Idiotikon under Rīn
7. ↑ Crap 'stone, rock' is one of the few pre-Romanic, i.e. Celtic-Rhaetian, words that have come down to us; Ses from Latin saxum 'stone, rock' means almost the same (Ricarda Liver: Rätoromanisch: an introduction to the Bündnerromanisch. Narr, Tübingen 1999, ISBN 3-8233-4973-2 ), p. 43.