St. Antönien

State :

Switzerland

Canton :

Graubünden (GR)

Region :

Prättigau / Davos

Political community :

Luzein

Postal code :

7246

former BFS no. :

3893

Coordinates :

780.74 thousand / 204 776 coordinates: 46 ° 58 '10 " N , 9 ° 48' 51" O ; CH1903: seven hundred and eighty thousand seven hundred forty / two hundred and four thousand seven hundred seventy-six

Height :

1459 m above sea level M.

Area :

52.28 km²

Residents:

331 (December 31, 2015)

Population density :

6 inhabitants per km²

Website:

www.luzein.ch

St. Antönien Square

map

Parish before the merger on January 1, 2016

St. Antönien , in the local Walser dialect Santa (n) töniä [santa (n) ˈtøniæ] , is a scattered settlement in the municipality of Luzein , Canton of Graubünden . Until December 31, 2015, it formed an independent political municipality .

geography

The former municipality is located in St. Antöniental, a northern side valley of the Prättigau , which is drained by the Schanielabach . It encompasses the uppermost section of the valley, known as the Partnunertal, the Gafiertal valley, which joins from the left, the valley widening below the confluence and, towards Schanielatobel, below the Eggerberg, Ascharina. In the north and east, the community borders on Austria on the ridge of the Rätikon . The highest mountains in this chain, which forms the watershed against the Montafon , are the Sulzfluh ( 2817 m above sea level ) in the north, the Schijenflue ( 2625 m above sea level ) in the northeast and the Madrisahorn ( 2826 m above sea level). , highest point of the municipality) in the southeast. To the west and south-west, Schafberg, Chüenihorn and Chrüz form the natural border of the valley.

Geologically, there are three formations, the Prättigau Flysch from the Cretaceous period forms the vegetation-covered peaks up to around 2450 m above sea level. M. A limestone band covers the flysch in the area of the Rätschen-, Sulz- and Schijenflue. In the south lies the crystalline Silvretta cover over the limestone band and forms the peaks of Schollberg , Gämpiflue and Madrisa. The Aschüeler Sattel is the remnant of the Ice Age valley which opened to the west. It was not until much later that the Schanielabach coming from Partnun took a similar course but dug its exit to the south.

St. Antönien is climatically in a pre-storage zone and over the year 1386 mm of precipitation falls, a third of it in the summer months of June, July and August. The winter is snowy and the mean monthly temperatures are between -5.5 degrees and 12.8 degrees Celsius. In the low-fog high valley, the sun shines an average of 105 hours per month in January and 171 hours in July.

The scattered settlement consists of a large number of individual farmsteads. Only at the village center, the square ( 1420 m above sea level ), do the buildings condense. The most important farm groups are to the right of the Schanielabach Aschüel, Schwendi, Meierhof and Büel, on the other side of the valley, on the lower reaches of the Gafierbach, Litzirüti, Sunnirüti, Stapfen, and Ascharina further down on the Schanielabach. The largest settlement in the Partnunertal is Partnunstafel ( 1763 m above sea level ). In the Gafiertal there are some settlements that are no longer inhabited all year round.

Of the entire former municipal area of 52.28 km², 594 hectares are covered by forest and wood, 2697 hectares are agriculturally usable, of which 2337 hectares are mountain pastures and the Alps. Another 1890 hectares are unproductive areas, mostly in the form of mountains, and 47 hectares comprise the settlement area.

Neighboring communities were Saas im Prättigau , Küblis , Luzein , Schiers and (in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg ) Tschagguns and St. Gallenkirch .

population

Population development
year	1623	1781	1805	1830	1850	1900
Residents	495	435	390	381	360	350
year	1950	1970	1990	2000	2010	2015
Residents	284	365	209	235	376	331

Despite the birth surplus, the population has been stable to slightly declining for a long time due to emigration. Between 1840 and 1890 alone, 127 people emigrated to America. Practically only Swiss nationals with German as their mother tongue live in the valley, most of them are of the Protestant-Reformed denomination.

economy

Agriculture is the most important industry in the valley. Due to the alpine climate, the altitude and the topography no economic agriculture is possible, therefore meat and dairy farming predominate. The keeping of small livestock, especially goats, has a long tradition, which can be seen more and more today. Made possible by the mechanized way of working, agriculture is mostly carried out from the actual homestead, the seasonal changes of residence to the various altitudes have mostly been abandoned.

In the 19th century the Lötscher family worked in Ascharina for five generations, producing not only tiled stoves and water pipes, but also characteristic ceramics that are very popular today. This is called St. Antönien ceramics or Lötscher ceramics.

traffic

St. Antönien can only be reached by road from Küblis, so private transport is most often preferred. Küblis can be reached in 35 minutes on the roughly eight PostBus courses daily.

tourism

behind the moon, left

The slogan of St. Antönien Tourismus is indicative, there is no mass tourism in the remote side valley. As early as 1891, 30 to 40 guests were accommodated in the valley apartments, which were vacant in summer. Today there are around 500 beds available in hotels and inns as well as in another 20 holiday apartments and houses. After the record numbers of the early 1980s with around 50,000 overnight stays per year, the number has leveled off at around 30,000. The valley is well known among touring skiers, mountain hikers and climbers, who can find routes of all difficulty levels. The Junker ski lift has been open to piste skiers since 1974.

The St. Antönien local museum, founded and operated by the St. Antönien cultural group , presents the Walser culture of the St. Antönien valley with permanent exhibitions (Lötsch pottery, cave bears, historical agriculture, St. Antönier church) as well as changing exhibitions and organizes cultural activities.

history

St. Antönien Ascharina around 1900

In the Sulzfluh there is a cave system with several entrances. The 4 km long corridors in the limestone have been measured since the late 1970s, and the bones and teeth of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) were found. The remains found in Abgrundhöhli, Chilchhöhli and Seehöhli are between 80,000 and 120,000 years old.

Before 1300 the valley was uninhabited and, as the field names indicate, it was used by lower-lying Romanesque settlements. As landlords, the first barons of Vaz (1250-1338) are documented tangible, which also at this time Kollatur the Church Jenaz possessed. After the Vaz family and their successors, the Counts of Toggenburg , died out, Castels passed to the Matsch family . The Montfort family and the barons of Sax gained rule over Ascharina and Rüti, although the border, the Schanielabach, should have existed for centuries.

Supported by the landlords, Walser migrated from Klosters in the 14th century, first via the Aschariner Alp in Gafiertal and then settled in Parnun and Aschüel. The valley was conquered from above in the Walser scattered settlement style. The landlords granted the Walser community the lower court and other freedoms.

The steep, heavily forested slopes up to the tree line were cleared for land reclamation and for construction and firewood. When looking for a building site for the church around 1370, avalanches were still unknown, so a decision was made against a building in the “Meierhof”, which at that time would have been more centrally located because rocks were to be expected there from Eggberg, the building on the “Platz “But nothing stood in the way. The new church was a branch of Jenaz.

In 1799 the Austrians under General von Hotze marched from the Schruns area over the passes near St. Antönien during the French Wars and invaded the Prättigau via Luzein.

During the Second World War , the St. Antönien blocking point was set up from 1940 to prevent any bypassing of the Sargans fortress via the passes near St. Antönien.

In the avalanche winter of 1951 , the hamlet of Meierhof was hit by an avalanche on January 20th. This was built below the Chüenihorn and damaged or destroyed 42 buildings, including nine residential buildings. Ten people were buried in the process, nine of whom were saved. A person was killed. In addition, 50 cattle died. After the avalanche winter of 1951, the first large avalanche barriers in Switzerland were built in St. Antönien .

The congregation, which existed until the end of 2015, was created through two congregational mergers in 1979 and 2007. In 1979 the communities of St. Antönien Castels (officially until 1953: Castels ) and St. Antönien Rüti (until 1953 officially: Rüti im Prättigau ) merged to form the community of St. Antönien . The boundary of the earlier communities was marked by the Schanielabach, which has always separated the courts of Castels and the monastery of the Ten Courts Association. The merged municipality took over the coat of arms of Rüti; Castels also had the Antonius cross in the coat of arms, but without the two stars. On February 23, 2006, the voters of the communities of St. Antönien and St. Antönien Ascharina (FSO No. 3892) decided with a large majority in both communities to merge on January 1, 2007 to form the new community of St. Antönien , which is now encompassed the entire basin. Approval by the canton took place on September 1, 2006 by resolution of the Grand Council. Talks were later also held with Klosters-Serneus about a more extensive merger in the rear Prättigau, but these were broken off again. Instead, St. Antönien merged with the Prättigau valley community of Luzein at the beginning of 2016.

coat of arms

Blazon : In blue, a golden (yellow) Antonius cross (tau cross) accompanied by two and superelevated by a six-pointed golden stars

The Antoniuskreuz refers to the name of the village and the valley, named after the church patron Antonius in the colors of the ten-court association . The two municipalities of St. Antönien-Castels and St. Antönien-Rüti, which have merged to form the municipality of St. Antönien, whose coat of arms will be continued by the new municipality, are represented by the two stars attached. The former parish of St. Antönien-Castels carried the Antonius Cross without a mark. Since the merger with the municipality of Ascharina, its star has also been included in the coat of arms.

Attractions

The reformed village church from the middle of the 14th century is a listed building

House from 1394
Residential building with a typical avalanche wedge, the "Ebenhöch"
Post level

literature

Otto Clavuot: St. Antönien. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
The municipalities of the canton of Graubünden. Chur / Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-7253-0741-5 .
Walter Escher: Village community and New Year's Eve singing in St. Antönien. A contribution to the problem of community and custom. Dissertation University of Zurich. Basel 1947 (= writings of the Swiss Society for Folklore, 31).
Erwin Flütsch: St. Antönien - cultural landscape aspects of a Walser community. Dissertation University of Zurich. aku- photo print, Zurich 1976.
Holger Finze-Michaelsen: History of the St. Antönien avalanches. AG Buchdruckerei, Schiers 1988.
Konrad Flütsch-Gansner: Commemorative publication for the 500th anniversary of the Church of St. Antönien. Edited by the parish of St. Antönien. St. Antönien 1993.
Konrad Flütsch-Gansner: field names of the community of St. Antönien. Significance, origin and stories of 1363 field and place names from St. Antönien with 17 separate regional maps. St. Antönien 2012, ISBN 978-3-9522963-9-4 .
Erwin Poeschel : The art monuments of the canton of Graubünden II. The valley communities Herrschaft, Prättigau, Davos, Schanfigg, Churwalden, Albula valley. (= Art Monuments of Switzerland. Volume 9). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1937. DNB 811066703 .
Kaspar Thalmann: Or give up the valley. The avalanche protection structures of St. Antönien. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-85881-478-4 .

Web links

Commons : St. Antönien - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Official website of the municipality of St. Antönien

Individual evidence

^ Linguistic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland , Volume V 1b.

↑ Jano Felice Pajarola: The Unheil in der Sebastiansnacht, in: Südostschweiz, January 20, 2001.

↑ Christian Pfister: The day after, on the management of natural disasters in Switzerland 1500–2000. Haupt, Bern 2002, ISBN 3-258-06436-9 , p. 158.

↑ Swiss Radio and Television SRF of April 24, 2017: Dealing with Avalanches - St. Antönien and the Avalanches

[1] Linguistic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland , Volume V 1b.