Mesocco

Mesocco

State :	Switzerland Switzerland
Canton :	canton of Grisons Graubünden (GR)
Region :	Moesa
BFS no. :	3822i1 f3 f4
Postal code :	6563
Coordinates :	737 782 / 139 198 coordinates: 46 ° 23 '24 " N , 9 ° 13' 48" O ; CH1903: seven hundred thirty-seven thousand seven hundred and eighty-two / one hundred thirty-nine thousand one hundred and ninety-eight46.39 9.23 769
Height :	769 m above sea level M.
Height range :	594–3281 m above sea level M.
Area :	164.77 km²
Residents:	1347 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	8 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.mesocco.ch
Mesocco
Location of the municipality
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Mesocco ( Rhaeto-Romanic Mesauc , German also Misox ) is a municipality in the Moesa region of the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland .

geography

Historic aerial photo by Werner Friedli from 1953

The villages of Pian San Giacomo ( 1170 m above sea level ) and San Bernardino ( 1626 m above sea level ) belong to the municipality of Mesocco . To the south of the village, the Castello di Mesocco , situated on a rock spur, dominates the valley. Below the ruin is the church of Santa Maria del Castello , which is important for its art-historically valuable monthly paintings .

The area of the municipality extends up to the Tambohorn ( 3279 m above sea level ) on the main Alpine ridge , which here also marks the border to Italy. Neighboring communities are Rossa , Soazza , Hinterrhein , Nufenen , Splügen as well as Madesimo , Campodolcino and San Giacomo Filippo in Italy.

history

Mesocco Tec-Nev was already inhabited during the Neolithic Age (4500 BC). Mesolithic tools made of flint and ceramic were found by a Neolithic fireplace when the A13 motorway was being built. More solid settlements go back to the Bronze Age and the Pre-Roman Iron Age. A considerable necropolis from the First Iron Age has been excavated in the village. On the Gorda hill there was a Roman settlement and tombs from the early Middle Ages. The place was first mentioned in the 9th century in the Churrätisches Reichsgutsurbar . In 1203 he appeared as Mesoco and in 1383 as Misogg ; later it became Misox in German and Mesauc in Romance.

The ruins of the Castello di Mesocco are still clearly visible today , and from around 1100 to 1480 it served as the mansion of the Barons von Sax and from 1480 to 1549 the Trivulzio , the then lords of Misox . In 1219 the church of S. Maria with its valuable frescoes from 1450 from the workshop of the Seregnesi is mentioned below the castle. The parish church of SS. Pietro e Paolo is also attested in 1219, it was changed in the 17th century and renovated in 1959.

Mesocco was the northernmost of the four fields (Italian: Squadre ) of the Misox High Court and was divided into the four Degagne Crimeo, Cebbia, Andergia and Darba, each of which was led by a consul. In 1480 Mesocco and Soazza voluntarily joined the Gray Covenant . The church of S. Rocco has been occupied since 1538 with the attached hospice, in which Capuchin monks have been active since 1668. Among several chapels are the chapel of S. Giacomo, first mentioned in 1419, S. Giuseppe in Andergia, which served the Evangelicals as a meeting place during the Reformation, and S. Giovanni Nepomuceno in Cebbia, which was destroyed by a flood in 1978 and then rebuilt most famous.

In 1549 the reformer Giovanni Beccaria, who had fled from Locarno , came to the Misox in Roveredo and Mesocco, where he worked as a Protestant teacher and preacher. In 1555 he went into exile in Zurich with the Protestant refugees from Locarno. In 1559 he returned to Mesocco and resumed teaching and preaching in the valley to serve the evangelical congregations. In 1561 he was banished by Mesocco due to Catholic interventions as part of the Counter Reformation and fled to the more tolerant Chiavenna and in 1571 to Bondo , where he worked as a reformed pastor.

Numerous patrician houses date from the 19th century, some of them earlier. After the Second World War, the Isola and Spina hydropower plants were built, the A13 motorway built in the 1960s, the San Bernardino tunnel inaugurated in 1967 and the tourist infrastructure in San Bernardino built so that Misox and the community of Mesocco experienced an economic boom . Nevertheless, agriculture and animal husbandry have retained their importance, as cattle, goats, sheep and pigs continue to be grazed on some alpine pastures.

population

Population development
year	1701	1773	1802	1850	1900	1950	2000	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Residents	1013	921	862	1182	1173	1150	1201	1225	1240	1260	1297	1308	1349	1354	1374

traffic

The operation of the Bellinzona – Mesocco railway from Bellinzona to Mesocco, which had existed since 1907, was discontinued in 1972, since then postbuses from Bellinzona and Roveredo GR , San Bernardino GR and Thusis have provided public transport. The main road 13 leads through Mesocco, while the autostrasse 13 is laid out west of Mesocco.

Culture

Fondazione Archivio a Marca

Attractions

Catholic parish church of SS. Pietro e Paolo

Catholic Church of San Rocco

Trivulzio-a Marca old barracks, around 1500

Cascella bridge and Nanin bridge on the A 13 by Christian Menn

Bridge Purlingheni in the district Benabbia

Church of Santa Maria del Castello from the 12th century

Castello di Mesocco from the 11th century

several cup stones

Sports

Football Club Alta Moesa

Personalities

literature

Aurelio Ciocco: Mesòcch ei sò sitt. Due secoli di storia dei nomi di luogo e nelle testimonianze locali . Tipo-Offset Jam, Prosìto 2012.
Luigi Corfù: Microparcellizzazione ed economia idrica: il caso di Mesocco. In: Archivio Storico Ticinese. 2nd series, number 145, Bellinzona 2009, pp. 41–56.
Rinaldo Giambonini, Agostino Robertini, Silvano Toppi: Mesocco. In: Il Comune . Edizioni Giornale del Popolo, Lugano 1971, pp. 193-204.
Simona Martinoli and others: Guida d'arte della Svizzera italiana. Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona 2007, pp. 494-497.
Erwin Poeschel : The Art Monuments of the Canton of Graubünden, Volume VI: The Italian Graubünden valleys of Puschlav, Misox and Calanca. (= Art Monuments of Switzerland. Volume 17). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1945, ISBN 978-3-906131-55-9 .
Balser Puorger : Misox. In: Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz , Volume 5, Maillard - Monod. Attinger, Neuenburg 1921, pp. 119, 120 ( digitized version ).
Cesare Santi: Famiglie originarie del Moesano o ivi immigrate . Menghini, Poschiavo 2001, pp. 157-160.
Cesare Santi: Mesocco (municipality). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 15, 2015 .
Emilio Tagliabue: È davvero esistita la zecca di Mesocco ?. In: Rivista Italiana di Numismatica , anno 1890, fascicolo III, Milano 1890, pp. 369-424.
Various authors: Mesocco. In: Storia dei Grigioni , 3 volumes, Collana "Storia dei Grigioni", Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona 2000.