Misox

Moësa region consisting of Misox and Calanca Valley

Looking south into Misox with the plain of Pian San Giacomo

Mesocco

at Lostallo

The Misox ( Italian Val or Valle Mesolcina ) is a valley in the Swiss canton of Graubünden south of the San Bernardino Pass .

geography

The valley extends from the San Bernardino Pass in a southerly direction to Grono , where it joins the Calanca Valley , and from there westwards to the Ticino border just before Bellinzona . The Moësa flows through the Misox and flows into the Ticino (Italian: Ticino ) shortly after the Ticino border . Neighboring valleys are the Calanca Valley in the west and the Val San Giacomo in Italy in the east . North of the San Bernardino Pass joins the Rheinwald .

Like the Bergell and the Puschlav, the Misox is a Graubünden valley south of the main Alpine ridge . In Misox, Italian is spoken like in Bergell and Puschlav and not Swiss German or Romansh as in the rest of Graubünden .

In Grono on August 11, 2003, the officially highest temperature ever recorded in Switzerland was registered at 41.5 ° C.

Places in the Misox

The Misox is located in the Moësa region of Grisons . Until the regional reform in the canton of Graubünden in 2015–2017, the administrative districts Mesocco , Roveredo and Calanca existed in the former Moësa district , which was replaced by the Moësa region.

The following municipalities belong to the Misox (without the Calanca Valley):

history

The Sax family (Italian: de Sacco) ruled the Castello di Mesocco over the Moesa and Calanca valleys from around 1100 to 1480. They established two judicial communities, Mesocco and Roveredo, and three administrative areas (Italian: Squadre ) Mesocco, di Mezzo (Soazza, Lostallo, Cama, Verdabbio and Leggia) and Roveredo (Grono, Roveredo and San Vittore). The Hundred (Italian: Centena ), a public meeting of citizens, was the legislative power, it took place every year on April 25th in Lostallo. A general council exercised executive power and the valley court consisted of 30 jurors. In 1480 Giovanni Pietro de Sacco sold his rulership rights to the Milanese general Gian Giacomo Trivulzio . During the rule of the Trivulzio family, a mint workshop in Roveredo minted gold and silver coins.

Also in 1480, the inhabitants of Soazza and Mesocco leaned against the Gray League , followed by the inhabitants of the remaining parts of the valley on August 4, 1496. Gian Francesco Trivulzio, the son of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, approved in 1549 against a payment of 24,500 gold duked the replacement of the remaining rulership rights. Since then, the history of Misox has been closely linked to that of the Drei Bünde and Graubünden.

In 1555 the evangelicals from Locarno moved through the Misox and the Rhine Valley to Zurich . Giovanni Beccaria , Locarno's reformer, had fled to Misox as early as 1549. In 1559 he resumed his teaching and preaching activities in this valley to serve the evangelical communities. In 1561 he was banished from the Misox 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. The evangelicals, mostly Italian religious refugees, were forced to believe in Catholicism on the occasion of the pastoral visit of Bishop Karl Borromeo in 1583. 108 people were charged, eleven of them burned for alleged witchcraft by secular violence, the remainder returned to the Catholic Church under torture.

Since 1500 many people had emigrated from the Misox for economic reasons; afterwards they worked as chimney sweeps, builders, plasterers, glaziers and flat painters all over Europe. Also in the 17th century there were various witch trials under questionable circumstances in the Misox .

The radio program Voci del Grigione italiano reports on events and topics from the Misox .

economy

The large forest stock was previously used for logging and exporting to Lombardy . Agriculture, especially cattle breeding, used to be intensive; it declined sharply after the Second World War. Today vines are grown in the lower Misox; Cattle, goat and sheep breeding with alpine grazing is predominant in the upper Misox.

The first large hydropower plants were built around 1950. Today the Ara near Soazza and Lostallo power stations are in operation. Some companies in the metal and plastic processing, clothing industry, several construction companies and handicraft businesses are also located in the valley. Many employees commute to the agglomerations of Bellinzona and Lugano . Some tourism developed in San Bernardino, and to a lesser extent on Alp Laura near Roveredo. Most of the ski lifts in San Bernardino are now outdated and have been closed since 2012 due to a lack of investors. This also has negative effects on the hotel industry, trade and the entire local economy.

traffic

As early as the Middle Ages, a simple transit road led through the Misox, connecting the south with the north of Europe. It was expanded and widened around 1750. In 1818–1822 a new pass road was built over the San Bernardinopass under the direction of the Ticino engineer Giulio Pocobelli, which is still passable in the summer months.

1907–1972 the lower Misox was driven by an electrified narrow-gauge railway that led from Bellinzona to Mesocco; since then there have been various postbus connections to San Bernardino, Thusis and Chur.

The 6.6 kilometer long San Bernardino road tunnel has been connecting the villages of San Bernardino and Hinterrhein since 1967, and the A13 semi-autobahn has been running continuously from Bellinzona to Chur since 1973 .

For centuries there have also been mule tracks and hiking trails over the San Jorio Pass , where you can get to Lake Como , and through the Val de la Forcola and the Forcola Pass you reach Chiavenna .