Author: Maarten Koning

Gstaad, Saanen and Menuhin

Gstaad (canton of Bern) has the reputation of being a fashionable (winter) sports resort. Although skiing opportunities are more limited than in other areas, the village got this reputation already in the nineteenth century.

However, not only the beau monde appreciate Gstaad and its nature. The musician, violinist and humanist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) often came to Gstaad and Saanen. He founded the Menuhin Festival in 1957.

Saanen: Gstaad Menuhin Festival Academy. Photo: TES

The musician not only appreciated the authentic character of the villages amid the glamorous Grand Hotels. He also found inspiration in nature. The mountains, valleys, the kindness of the farmers and the colourful shades of the four seasons inspired him.

White in winter, multicoloured slopes and meadows in spring, green in summer and autumn colours afterwards.

The  ‘Philosophenweg‘, named after him, runs from Gstaad to Saanen, home to the Yehudi Menuhin Institute.

In Gstaad, the world of the rich and famous and a philosophical way of life meet. It is perhaps symbolic for the country, a balance between respect for nature and materialism, modernity and authenticity and a (self) reflective attitude to life, and progress without giving in to the (political) delusion of the day.

For this reason, Swiss democracy is sometimes compared to a clockwork. It is an ingenious constitutional human creation that has taken shape over centuries from below, bottom-up.

It is authentic but modern and tailor-made. It is like centuries-old classical music: timeless quality. That may have been the inspiration for Yehudi Menuhin.

Source and further information: www.gstaad.ch

Saanen, The JKF International School

Gstaad from the Wispile Photo: TES

Ritterhaus Chasa de Capol

The Swiss government met at Müstair in Val Müstair (canton of Graubünden) on 12 October 2022. Sixty years earlier, however, members of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) and cabinet meetings had been a familiar sight at the Ritterhaus (House of the Knight) in Sta. Maria, located a few kilometres further away.

The Ritterhaus

The history of this monumental complex dates back to the 12th century, but its function as a hotel has only existed since 1962. 1955 Swiss musician and conductor Ernst Theophil Amadeus Schweizer (1932-2021) bought the complex. The Basel-born musician was a conductor in Venice and found a new home in the Münstertal valley between Basel and Venice.

After 1962, he renovated the Ritterhaus in authentic style and hosted famous guests from politics, business, art, film, and music, including President Theodor Heuss of the German Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik Deutschland), its  Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Eugen Gerstenmaier, the President of the parliament (Bundestag), Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano, Ludwig Erhard, and many other members of the government. Charly Chaplin, Herbert von Karajan, Albert Hofmann, Max Frisch, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and other celebrities were among the guests.

His son, Ramun Schweizer, took over running the hotel in 1997. Father and son renovated and refurbished the hotel with great respect for its centuries-old history and culture. It is, in fact, a museum, and even the kitchen, where Ramun is the chef, is based on the classic wood oven, copper pans, and regional recipes.

Ramun Schweizer in front of the kitchen

Interior

The centuries-old chapel, the medieval walls, the Gothic vaults, the fireplace in the drawing room, the separate authentic medieval kitchen with a fireplace oven, carriages, and an Oldtimer from 1934 (a black Citroën Tractation Avant), a dining room in the knight’s hall, breakfast in a Stube, the fondue room, twelve authentically furnished bedrooms (with Wi-Fi, without television), the Venetian Marco Polo bar, the Davidoff smoking room, and various other rooms create a comfortable and unique atmosphere.

Diner Room

Breakfast Room 

Fondue Room

Davidoff Smoking Area

Landing with access to the rooms

Theatre, chapel and wine cellar

The theatre and its Steinway piano on the top floor deserve a separate mention. The theatre is still used for concerts or other events. Instruments, masks, and props from and about Venice also refer to the musician and conductor Schweizer. Basel and the Basler Fasnacht also have a special place in the Ritterhaus.

The theatre

The Chapelle

The wine cellar

History

The beginnings of the complex date back to 1199. The dynasty Polo, from Venice, also settled in Sta. Maria and remained until 1839. The house is named after Capol, Ca-Pol, or House Power of Polo. This dynasty held senior positions in the Republic of Venice, the Bishopric of Chur, and the Habsburg administration. The Capols were also economically active in the region.

After the conquest of Valtellina, Bormio and Chiavenna in 1512 by the three Liques of present-day Graubünden, members of the dynasty were bailiffs (Podestà) in Valtellina.

The dynasty remained Catholic during the Reformation, which was not self-evident in protestant Sta. Maria. Augustinian monks even had a hospice (due to its location on the Umbrail Pass) and a refectory in the eastern annexe of the complex and used the chapel mentioned above.

Emperor Friedrich of Habsburg (1415-1493) elevated the dynasty to the Counts of Capol in 1481. 1506 Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) spent a few days in the Ritterhaus. After the dynasty died out, the complex remained empty until 1955, when it fell into disrepair.

Conclusion

After 1955, the Ritterhaus Chasa Capol began its second life. The cosmopolitan and cultural atmosphere and spirit of the Capols, Val Müstair, trade, monks, Säumer (on their way to and from Tyrol via the Umbrail Pass), emperors, counts, knights and other dignitaries are still present in an authentic and musical, Venetian and Basler setting.

The Ritterhaus is also looking to the future. An outdoor swimming pool will be ready to receive guests in a magnificent natural setting in 2023.

The Basler Fasnacht in the Ritterhaus

Moreover, in 2000, the Ritterhaus received another knightly touch: Ernst Theophil Schweizer became a Ritter of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a papal order.

Charter of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem

The beginnings of this order date back to 1099, a century before the Ritterhaus was built. Today, there are about 30,000 knights in this order worldwide. However, a Basler hotelier and Venetian conductor living in Sta. Maria in Val Müstair as Knight of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem was a unique appearance and, simultaneously, a tribute to the Ritterhaus and this knight.  

Source and further Information: Ritterhaus Chasa de Capol

An ode without words to Val Müstair

The Val Müstair (Münstertal) is the easternmost valley in Switzerland. The approximately 1,600 inhabitants live in Tschierv, Fuldera, Lü, Valchava, Sta villages. Maria and Müstair and a few hamlets. They form the municipality of Val Müstair.

The villages and their historical and cultural backgrounds are dealt with in another article. This article will also explain the relationship with the Counts of Tyrol, the Habsburgs, Bormio, the Valtellina and Chiavenna in Italy (subject territories from 1512 to 1798), the Bishop of Chur and the Gotteshausbund.

An ode without words to the beauty of the valley and its villages.

 

Sta. Maria

The church of Santa Maria

The San Nicolaus and Sebastian church in Tschierv

Fuldera and the St. Rochus church

Lü and its church at an altitude of 1 920 m.

Valchava

and the Nossaduonna

And St. Martin Church

Müstair and the St. John monastery (Claustra Son Jon)

The Swiss Postauto

The year 1848 marked a new beginning for the transport sector in Switzerland. The railways are the best-known example. However, the Postauto also appeared.

As early as the 18th century, diligences and stagecoaches crossed the mountain passes of Switzerland. They transported passengers and mail. They were private companies.

1906-1960

In 1849, the federal government established a monopoly on this mode of transportation. The stagecoach, pulled by four or six horses, was the only means of transport until 1906. The first Postauto drove from Bern to Detligen in 1906. Three cars were operated on this route.

Another 2,000 stagecoaches were in operation until 1913. The Postauto took over this role after 1918. In 1919, the army gave one hundred Postautos to improve the service. This was a stimulus for further development. The most important manufacturers of Postauto were the firms Saurer in Arbon and  FWB in Wetzikon.

The Postauto became active in more and more mountain areas and remote valleys. A well-known example is Saas-Fee, which is still waiting for a connection to the railway network. There was no motorway to Saas-Fee until 1951. The postal cars drove as far as they could, and the journey was continued with mules. In 1951, the road to Saas-Fee was completed.

The Postauto was also a popular means of transport for excursions until the 1960s. Most people could not afford a car until then, and the Postauto (the Alpine car) transported passengers up to the glaciers and over the highest mountain passes. There was often even a traffic jam of Postautos.

Postauto AG

Today, Postauto AG is a subsidiary of the Schweizerische Post AG and, therefore, a federally affiliated company. About half of the services are provided by private Postauto operators with whom Postauto AG cooperates. Postauto AG also has international routes and was active in France until recently, and is still operational in Tyrol and other parts of northern Italy.

The Postauto has a road network of approximately 17,000 km, which is twice the size of the SBB rail network. There are 936 routes with 2,400 cars in the 26 cantons. Postauto transports around 127 million passengers annually.

Postauto operates its services on behalf of the Swiss cantons. They define the services (routes and timetables) and, together with the Confederation, contribute approximately 50% of the costs. The rest of the revenue comes from individual customers, groups, and school transport or other specialised transport.

A special line runs through the Bernese Oberland from Reichenbach to the Kandertal, up the Griesalp. This Postauto has a route of 2 kilometres with an ascent of no less than 28%!

The primary function of Postauto remained unchanged over the years, despite the introduction of a new company structure. Passenger transport, as well as letter and parcel delivery, remains the core business in the most remote regions and villages. The Postauto is known for its punctuality, service and comfort. It runs like clockwork.

Museums

Lovers of Postauto Oldtimers and the history of this unique transport company can visit various museums, including the Saurer Museum in Arbon, the FWB Museum in Wetzikon, the Sammlungsdepot in Schwarzenburg (canton of Bern) with the oldest intact Postauto, the Museum für Kommunikation in Bern and, of course, online at the Postauto AG.

(Source: www.postauto.ch, www.mfk.ch).

Müstair, Symbol of Swiss Unity

The Swiss government (Bundesrat/Conseil fédéral) has been meeting once or twice a year at a different location, extra muros, of the Federal Palace (Bundeshaus) in Bern since 2010. On 12 October, the government was present in Müstair (Val Müstair/ Münstertal) in canton Graubünden.

The government met with the Regenza (cantonal government) intra muros of the monastery (Claustra Son Jon) and later joined the valley’s population on the Plaz Grond.

The meeting in Müstair is the 17th extra muros meeting. The government affirms the country’s diversity and wants to strengthen its ties with the cantons and the people.

Müstair is not just any place. It was here that Charlemagne founded St Johann’s Monastery (Claustra Son Jon) around 775 and his wife the church of St Maria a few kilometres away. Moreover, near Val Müster, the battle of Calven (South Tyrol), Chalavaina in Romansh, occurred on 22 May 1499.

The Engadinerkrieg

This war of the Eidgenossen against Habsburg is also called the Engadinerkrieg. Emperor Maximilian (1469-1519) invaded Unterengadin and Val Müstair in 1499, intending to control the valley and the important Umbrail Pass. It began an escalation and became a regional conflict in the South of Germany. That is why this conflict is also called the ‘ Schwabenkrieg’.

The troops of the three allies (the Gotteshausbund, the Zehngerichtenbund and the Obere or Graue Bund) were the victors. It led to the creation of the Freistaat der Drei Bünde in 1524. The republic existed until 1798 (French invasion) and, in 1803, became the new canton of Graubünden, named after the Graue Bund.

Vlag van Graubünden - Wikipedia

At the 1499 Treaty of Basel, the Habsburgs disappeared from Swiss territory for good as a secular power, apart from the Lower Engadine and the influence of Habsburg-friendly bishops of the diocese of Chur, some abbots of abbeys and local rulers.

The last fighting between Habsburg on one side and the Freistaat der Drei Bünde on the other occurred during the Bündner Wirren (1619-1639). Graubünden was a side battleground in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) between Austrian and Spanish Habsburg and its local Bündner allies on one side and France and her (Bündner) allies on the other. It was also a civil war.

Habsburg formally ruled the Lower Engadine until 1652/1653. In that year, the villages bought themselves free. These had been closely associated with the Gotteshausbund since 1367 and, in fact, already belonged to the Freistaat der Drei Bünde.

The bishop of Chur owned the rights to Val Müstair. This region was also affiliated with the Gotteshausbund. He sold the valley to Habsburg in 1728. However, the villages in Val Müstair, in turn, bought themselves free in 1762. Apart from Rhäzuns (until 1819) and Tarasp (1803), Habsburg no longer had political ties with Graubünden.

Romansh language

The Romansh language was still the primary language in Graubünden at this time. However, German-speaking Alemanni from the seventh century on and Welsh immigrants from the twelfth century were gaining ground.

Three hundred and fifty years after 1653, a minority of 55 000 inhabitants of the canton speak Romansh: it is more than the new canton of 1803!

The Plaz Grond in Müstair

Graubünden is still trilingual (Romansh, Italian and German). Romansh consists of five idioms. In Val Müstair, Jauer is the spoken language. This language is similar to Vallader but has its own identity and history. Graubünden symbolises the diversity of Switzerland par excellence. The physical shape of the canton even bears some resemblance to the country.

Markus Caduff presents his gift to the President of  Federation Ignazio Cassis

The meeting of the government and the Regenza showed some similarities with the Landsgemeinde, which also used to exist in Graubünden. Markus Caduff, president of the Regenza, and Gabriella Binkert Becchetti, mayor of Val Müstair, welcomed the government, also in Romansh.

In his speech, Federal President Ignazio Cassis referred to Switzerland’s multilingualism and diversity. As a participant in a Vallader course in Scuol in 2021 and one of the initiators of federal support for the Romansh language and culture, he began his speech in Romansh.

Donna Leon, living in Sta. Maria, and Ignazio Cassis.

In this context, he also confirmed Switzerland’s right to exist: the will of the 26 cantons and their citizens to live in the Confederatio Helvetica, which they founded in 1848.

Nor does the (travel) distance between Geneva and Müstair or Lugano and Basel change that. Switzerland is a Willensnation. The citizens and cantons always have the last word, in 1815, 1848 and 2022.

The Landsgemeinde no longer exists in the canton. Still, the earnest, friendly, somewhat solemn mood and direct contact between residents and municipal, cantonal federal administrators resemble it. It was a meeting ‘Swiss-style’. The country and its inhabitants benefit from it.

The Convent of St. John in Müstair

The Benedict Convent of St. John, Claustra Son Jon in Müstair (Canton of Graubünden) was founded around 774 by Charlemagne (748-814) and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983.

The monastery is a complex of historical (Carolingian) buildings and wall paintings, a museum and a house of praying and working for more than 1200 years.

The museum shows the history and many objects of priceless features, including unique Carolingian and Romanesque frescos, the statue of Charlemagne and a late Gothic vaulted ceiling.

The holy cross chapel also dates back to the 8th century and offers insights into paintings from several periods. The Planta tower was built in the 10th century. This residential tower is the oldest of its kind in the Alpine region. The tower houses a museum today.

(Source and further information: J. Goll, Convent Museum Müstair, Müstair 2004).

Een authentiek Klooster. Oktober 2022. Foto: TES.

The Simplon Pass, Gondo and the Ecomuseum Simplon

The Eco Museum Simplon focuses on the transit traffic of the Simplon Pass, its history and the natural environment of the Simplon and the valley. The museum combines landscape with cultural history, hence the addition ‘Eco’. The museum has several buildings with permanent exhibitions.

It is primarily an open-air museum, featuring the medieval ‘saum’ road and the seventeenth-century Stockalper road, which spans approximately 35 kilometres, serving as the main route. Saum is another word for a mule. Transport took mainly place with this pack animal until the advent of the stagecoach. Traders are called ‘Säumer‘ for this reason.

The Stockalperweg is a hiking trail that leads from Brig via Gabi and Furgg to the Zwischenberg valley and the Gondoschlucht (Gondo Gorge) in Gondo.

Siders/Sierre

The museum’s main building is Der Alte Gasthof (the Old Inn) in Simplon-Dorf (Village). The international transit traffic and its impact on regional history (Brig, Simplon-Dorf and other villages), the cultural-historical objects from this region (the Perren Collection), and the past of the Gondo-Zwischbergen gold mine is the main focus.

Die Alte Kaserne (the Old Barracks) is a Napoleonic building at the entrance to the Gondo Gorge. It shows the traffic routes of the Simplon: the old saum path (12th and 13th centuries), the Stockalper road (17th century), the Napoleonic road (1805), the railway line with the construction of the Simplon tunnel (1906) and the national road (1957).

Fort Gondo was in use in the Napoleonic years 1798-1813. The army expanded the complex into a modern fort at the beginning of the 20th century and during the Second World War.

Das Goldabbaumuseum (gold mining museum) in the Stockalperturm in Gondo showcases the gold mining town of Gondo. Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper (1609-1691), “le Roi du Simplon“, as he was called at the court of Louis XIV, mined gold in the 17th century. Until the early 20th century, various companies attempted to mine this precious metal with limited success.

(Source and further information: Ecomuseum Simplon; www.simplon.ch; ViaStoria Kulturwege Schweiz)

Jau sun Biosfera Val Müstair

The inhabitants of the Münstertal valley (Val  Mustair, Graubünden), voted in 2020 in favour of the Charta 2021-30.

This document sets out the aims of the Biosfera Val Müstair Nature Park for the next ten years. The next step is on the cantonal and federal levels. It shows how Switzerland functions bottom-up.

Sustainable development, tourism, agricultural regional development and nature conservation are not opposing goals but complement each other.

More than a thousand years before Val Müstair was awarded the title of a nature park of national importance in 2011, it was already a region of international importance.

The monastery Claustra Son Jon or  St. John in Müstair, founded by Charlemagne after his campaign against the Langobards in 774, is a reminder of this history.

Muglin Mall

Hotel Crusch Alba

Das Ritterhaus Chasa de Chapol

Many museums, centuries-old villages, the town of Sta. Maria and centuries-old hotels, such as the Ritterhaus Chasa de Chapol and Crusch Alba and the museum the Muglin Mall, merge with the beautiful landscape and nature.

However, the Biosfera does not live in the past but is looking forward.

Jau sun Biosfera, I am Biosfera is the mood (Further information: (www.biosfera.ch).