Münstertal (Alpine valley)

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The Münstertal south of the Ofen Pass

The Munster ( Romansh: Val Müstair , [ˌvalmyʃtaɪ̯r] ? / I ; Italian Val Monastero ) is a valley in the Alps , stretching from the eastern extremity of the Swiss canton of Grisons in the Italian South Tyrol stretches. It separates the Sesvenna group in the north from the Ortler Alps in the south. Audio file / audio sample

From the west or from the Swiss side you can reach the Münstertal via the Engadin and the Ofen Pass , from the east or from the Italian side via the Vinschgau . From Sta. Maria im Münstertal, the Umbrail Pass leads into Valtellina .

geography

The Münstertal is around 25 kilometers long and stretches from the Ofen Pass in the west to the Vinschgau , the uppermost part of the Adige Valley , in the east. The valley is surrounded by the Piz Daint , Piz Turettas , Piz Lad, Piz Chavalatsch mountains in the south and Piz Terza in the north.

Topographically, the Münstertal can be divided into three valley levels. On the top are the places Tschierv and Fuldera , on the middle Valchava and Sta. Maria and on the lowest Müstair and - in the Italian South Tyrol - Taufers . The Italian-Swiss state border also forms the Romansh-German language border. The narrow point before it exits into the Adige Valley is called Calven , known from the Battle of the Calven .

The Rambach , which flows into the Etsch near Glurns, flows through the valley .

The Münstertal, opened up in the South Tyrolean part by the SS 41 , is connected to the Engadine by the main road 28 over the Ofen Pass. The postbus has been running from Zernez since 1927 . Since May 5, 2005 the line has been extended to Mals . At the beginning of the last century there were even plans for a rail link with the Ofenbergbahn project . After the reopening of the Vinschgau Railway , the possibility of a connection from Scuol through a tunnel to Müstair and on to Mals is being discussed again.

Culture, history

The Münstertal is the only southern Graubünden valley in which Romansh is spoken. The valley dialect Jauer is a subspecies of Vallader (Lower Engadine Romansh ). From 2008 to 2012 Rumantsch Grischun was preferred as the written language in schools and at the authorities . Since then, Vallader has been the language of literacy and official authority again in the Graubünden part of the valley, with the Federal Supreme Court ruling that children who started school with Rumantsch Grischun should continue to be taught this variety. In the municipality of Taufers, in the South Tyrolean part of the valley, around 98 percent of the population is German as their mother tongue.

While the places on the upper two valley steps are reformed , the two places on the lower valley step are Catholic .

In the village of Müstair there is the famous Benedictine monastery of St. Johann with the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

The valley made headlines in summer 2005 when a brown bear immigrated from South Tyrol and presented itself to tourists. The bear (officially JJ2) called Lumpaz (German: Lausbub) is the brother of Bruno (JJ1), who was killed ten months later in Bavaria .

Municipalities in the Münstertal

In the Münstertal there is only one municipality on Swiss territory with the municipality of Val Müstair . Around 1,600 people live in the community. It was created on January 1, 2009 from the merger of the previously independent municipalities:

On the Italian side, most of the Münstertal belongs to the municipality of Taufers in Münstertal . The valley exit is located in the municipality of Mals .

Healthcare

Health care in the valley is provided by Ospidal Val Müstair in Santa Maria. With 85 employees and four doctors, the hospital is the second smallest Swiss hospital (after Promontogno in Bergell ), but the largest employer in the valley. It serves as an acute hospital for outpatient interventions, a nursing home, general practitioner practice and the headquarters of the emergency services.

natural reserve

Since 2010, the Swiss part of the Münstertal has been part of the Val Müstair Parc Naziunal biosphere reserve by UNESCO . The Swiss National Park forms the core zone and the Münstertal forms the maintenance and development zone. The maintenance zone should limit disruptive influences on the core zone as far as possible and is primarily intended for sustainable agricultural and forestry use. The development zone serves as a settlement and economic area. The biosphere reserve was recognized on the condition that the core zone was completely surrounded by a maintenance zone by 2013. To this end, the Engadine communities bordering the national park must be involved in the project.

In the same year, the Münstertal was recognized by the Federal Office for the Environment as a regional nature park of national importance .

The southern flanks of the Italian valley section lie in the Stilfserjoch National Park .

gallery

  • Münstertal near Tschierv

  • Information board

  • View of Taufers in the Münstertal

Web links

Commons : Val Müstair  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rebekka Haefeli: The Dwarf Hospital in the Far East , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of February 25, 2012, p. 17
  2. ↑ [1] Website of the Swiss National Park
  3. ↑ [2] (PDF; 485 kB) Order of the Federal Office for the Environment of September 13, 2010

Coordinates: 46 ° 36 '  N , 10 ° 25'  E ; CH1903:  eight hundred twenty-eight thousand three hundred eighty-eight  /  165311