Poschiavo
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Poschiavo (, , , ) is a
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...
in the
Bernina Region Bernina Region is one of the eleven administrative districts in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy ...
in the canton of
Grisons The Grisons (; ) or Graubünden (),Names include: * ; *Romansh language, Romansh: ** ** ** ** ** **; * ; * ; * . See also list of European regions with alternative names#G, other names. more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton ...
in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.


History

Poschiavo is first mentioned in 824 as ''in Postclave'' though this comes from a later copy of the original document. In 1140 it was mentioned as ''de Pusclauio''. It was formerly known by the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
name of ''Puschlav''. It owes its beauty to the imposing Renaissance style of its courtly 19th century architecture. These ''palazzi'' were built by prosperous local residents who had made their fortune abroad, particularly in Spain.


Geography

Poschiavo has an area, , of . Of this area, 19.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 32.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (46.2%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). Until 2017, the municipality was located in the Poschiavo sub-district of the Bernina district, after 2017 it was part of the new Bernina Region. It is located in the Val Poschiavo, one of the four valleys of the
Italian Graubünden Italian Grisons or Italian Grigioni ( or ; ; ; French: ''Grisons italiens'') or sometimes also called Lombard Grisons (; ), is the region of the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland, in which Italian is the dominant language. Located in the souther ...
, where the official language is
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
. The other valleys are Val Bregaglia, Mesolcina and Calanca. It consists of the village of Poschiavo and numerous
hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
. Poschiavo has its own lake, called
Lago di Poschiavo Lago di Poschiavo is a natural lake in the Val di Poschiavo in the Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons. Geography It lies at an elevation of , a length of , a surface area of and a maximum depth of . The lake is both fed and dr ...
, which is located to the south of the village.


Transportation

Poschiavo's only direct connection to
Engadin The Engadin or Engadine (;This is the name in the two Romansh idioms that are spoken in the Engadin, Vallader and Puter, as well as in Sursilvan and Rumantsch Grischun. In Surmiran, the name is ''Nagiadegna'', and in Sutsilvan, it is ''Gidegna'' ...
and the rest of Switzerland is over the
Bernina Pass The Bernina Pass (el. .) () is a high mountain pass in the Bernina Range of the Alps, in the canton of Graubünden (Grisons) in eastern Switzerland. It connects the famous resort town of St. Moritz in the Engadin valley with the Italian-spea ...
. The town is connected by the
Hauptstrasse 29 The Hauptstrasse 29 is a main road in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, with a total length of . The road begins at a junction with between Samedan and Pontresina, and passes Pontresina before climbing over the Bernina pass at a maximum elevation ...
road over the pass and a ''Rhätische Bahn'' (
RhB The Rhaetian Railway (; ; ), abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the RhB operates all the railway lines of the Cantons of Switzerland, ...
)
station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...
on the
Bernina Railway The Bernina railway line (; ; ) is a Single track (rail), single-track railway line forming part of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB). It links the spa resort of St. Moritz, in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, with the tow ...
between
St. Moritz St. Moritz ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in the administrative region of Maloja in the Swiss ...
and
Tirano Tirano (; ) is a town and (municipality) in Valtellina, located in the province of Sondrio, Lombardy (northern Italy). It has 9,053 inhabitants (2016) and is adjacent to the Italy–Switzerland border. The river Adda (river), Adda flows through ...
. There are a total of seven other railway stations along the Bernina line in the municipality: , , , , , , and .


Demographics

Poschiavo has a population (as of ) of ; as of 2008, 8.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals and, over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of −3.6%. In 2000 the gender distribution of the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female;Graubunden in Numbers
accessed 21 September 2009
while the age distribution, is: 332 people or 10.3% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old; 222 people or 6.9% are 10 to 14 and 122 people or 3.8% are from 15 to 19. Of the adult population, 300 people or 9.3% are between 20 and 29 years; 433 people or 13.4% are 30 to 39; 413 people or 12.8% are 40 to 49 and 422 people or 13.1% are 50 to 59. The senior population distribution is 389 people or 12.1% between 60 and 69 years old; 362 people or 11.2% are 70 to 79; there are 197 people or 6.1% who are from 80 to 89 and 33 people or 1.0% who are from 90 to 99.Graubunden Population Statistics
accessed 21 September 2009
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 32.2% of the vote; the next three most popular parties were the SVP (27%), the SPS (26.8%) and the FDP (12.6%). In the town about 69.3% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either the non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ''
Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). It has an unemployment rate of 1.21%, since 2005 there are 252 people employed in the primary economic sector with about 90 businesses involved in it; 456 people are employed in the
secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...
in which there are 60 businesses; 1,073 people are employed in the
tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...
, with 164 businesses. From the , 2,774 or 86.0% are
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 283 or 8.8% belong to the
Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
; of the rest of the population, there are nine individuals (or about 0.28% ) who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, and fourteen, or about 0.43%, who belong to another Christian church. There are two persons, or approximately 0.06% of the population, who belong to another church not listed on the census; 36, i.e. 1.12% of the population belong to no church, because they are either
agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, whilst 107 of the total ( 3.32% of the population ) did not answer the question. The historical status of the population is given in the following table:


Languages

Most of the population () speaks Italian as native language (90.4%), with German being second most common (7.9%) and French being third (0.7%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 2 October 2009
In addition to Italian, Lombard is the native language of the majority of people, spoken in a condition of
diglossia In linguistics, diglossia ( , ) is where two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled "L" or "low" v ...
with Standard Italian. Lombard is still widely used in official contexts, such as the city council.


Notable residents

* Guido Fanconi (1892 in Poschiavo – 1979), a Swiss pediatrician *
Wolfgang Hildesheimer Wolfgang Hildesheimer (9 December 1916 – 21 August 1991) was a German author. He originally trained as an artist, before turning to writing. Biography Hildesheimer was born of Jewish parents, chemist Arnold Hildesheimer (1885–1955) and Hann ...
(1916–1991), German writer, lived in Poschiavo from 1957–1991 * Werner Lüdi (1936 in Poschiavo – 2000), a Swiss jazz saxophonist and author * David Gervasi (born 1983 in Poschiavo), a decathlete * Federico Lardi (born 1985 in Poschiavo), a Swiss ice hockey defenceman * Evelina Raselli (born 1992 in Poschiavo), a Swiss ice hockey forward, bronze medallist at the
2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...


Heritage sites of national significance

There are ten buildings in Poschiavo that are listed as Swiss Heritage sites of national significance. Three churches and a chapel are listed: ''S. Maria Assunta'', ''S. Vittore'', ''S. Carlo Borromeo'' and ''Vecchio Monastero con cappella monastica di S. Maria Presentata''; three houses are also on the lis: ''Casa Tomé'', ''Devon House'', and ''Li Curt House''; finally, there are three buildings, now used as museums; ''Mulino di Aino'', ''Palazzo De Bassus Mengotti'', ''Palazzo Dorizzi''. ''Casa Tomé'' is now the Poschiavo town museum, an excellent example of the traditional architecture of the Val Poschiavo; during the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
it was built as a
tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...
; by 1450 it had reached its current exterior appearance. While it was built in the village center, it had a structure that more closely matched nearby farm house; today it houses a museum and hosts classes and discussions on traditional farming and food production techniques. The ''Mulino di Aino'' presents several pre-industrial trades; this working museum shows how flour was produced from grain, boards from timber and
horseshoe A horseshoe is a product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toenail, altho ...
s from iron. The
baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
''Palazzo De Bassus-Mengotti'' was built in 1655 and expanded over the following centuries and today it also houses a museum whose ground floor houses a collection of farm implements. The first floor is used for temporary exhibits and currently (in 2009) it holds a collection of paintings by the local artist Fernando Lardelli; the second floor contains exhibits showing everyday life in the valley and emigration from the same.Val Poschiavo tourism, history and tradition
accessed 2 October 2009
The ''Palazzo Dorizzi'' houses pieces collected by Christen and Dorizzi (from Basel and Puschlav respectively) in India during 1947–57.
accessed 2 October 2009


Climate

Between 1991 and 2020 Poschiavo had an average of 101.2 days of rain per year and on average received of
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
; the wettest month were June and August, during which time it received an average of ; during these months there was rain for an average of 10.8 days in June and 11.1 days in August. The driest month of the year was February with an average of over 4.5 days.


See also

*
Italian Graubünden Italian Grisons or Italian Grigioni ( or ; ; ; French: ''Grisons italiens'') or sometimes also called Lombard Grisons (; ), is the region of the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland, in which Italian is the dominant language. Located in the souther ...
* Poschiavino


References


External links


Official Site of the municipality of Poschiavo


* {{Authority control Cultural property of national significance in Graubünden Towns in Val Poschiavo