Belfort district
| Belfort | |
|---|---|
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| Basic data | |
| Canton : | Graubünden (GR) |
| District : | Albula |
| Main town : | Lantsch / Lenz |
| Surface: | 33.16 km² |
| Residents: | 781 December 31, 2009 |
| Population density : | 24 inhabitants per km² |
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The Belfort district of the Swiss canton of Graubünden , named after Belfort Castle , formed part of the Albula district until December 31, 2015 and comprised the political communities of Lantsch / Lenz and Schmitten . Today's circle is a direct successor to the judicial community of Belfort, a member of the Ten Courts Association . The districts were abolished by the Graubünden regional reform.
Communities
| coat of arms | Name of the parish | Population (December 31, 2018) |
Area in km² |
BFS no |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Lantsch / Lenz | 535 | 21.81 | 3513 |
 |
Schmitten | 234 | 11.35 | 3514 |
history
Belfort Castle, built by the Barons of Vaz around 1200, formed the center of a small lordship that was inherited by the Counts of Toggenburg in 1338 . The death of the last Toggenburg resident, Friedrich, caused the subjects, including daz Landt and court zuo Bellfort, to secure mutual aid in the Ten Courts League , which was concluded in 1436. After the inheritance disputes had been settled, Belfort fell to Heinrich von Sax and Wilhelm von Montfort , who guaranteed the Davos Walsers a say in the election of the Belfort Vogts in their freedom letter of February 5, 1438. In 1466, Count Hugo von Werdenberg sold the Davos, Klosters, Belfort, Strassberg, Ausser- and Innerschanfigg dishes to Duke Siegmund of Austria. The tensions between the subjects and the Habsburg authorities continued to increase and finally erupted in the Swabian War, when the Grisons conquered Belfort Castle and burned it in 1499. The following century saw a number of conflicts, especially during the Reformation . In contrast to Davos, the Belfort court remained mostly in the Catholic faith. In 1613 the division into the two half-courts took place
- Innerbelfort: Alvaneu , Schmitten and Wiesen ,
- Ausserbelfort: Brienz / Brinzauls , Lantsch / Lenz and Surava .
In 1652 the Belforters replaced the Habsburg rights by paying money and thus achieved full autonomy within the Ten Courts League. As a result, the region - with the exception of Lantsch, which is off the major transit routes - developed quietly. When the current districts and municipalities were created in 1851 with the new cantonal constitution, Wiesen, which was the only one of the six neighborhoods to have joined the Reformation, moved to the Bergün district .
On January 1, 2015, the municipalities of Alvaneu, Brienz / Brinzauls and Surava merged together with the municipalities of Alvaschein, Mon, Stierva and Tiefencastel to form the new municipality of Albula / Alvra . The new municipality belongs to the Alvaschein district . Thus, only the two geographically separated communities of Lantsch / Lenz and Schmitten remain in the Belfort district.
literature
- Friedrich Pieth : Bündnergeschichte . Chur, ISBN 3-85894-002-X .
- Jürg Simonett: Belfort (GR, Herrschaft). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
