Versam is a former

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 district of Surselva 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 to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The municipalities of Valendas, Versam,

Safien Safien is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Surselva (district), Surselva in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden. The municipalities of Valendas, Versam, Safien and Tenna, Swi ...

and Tenna merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of

Safiental Safiental () is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Surselva Region in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The municipalities of Valendas, Versam, Safien and Tenna, Switzerland, Tenna merged on 1 Jan ...

.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013

History

Versam is first mentioned in 1050 as ''a valle Versamia''.

Geography

Versam had an area, , of . Of this area, 16.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 70.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (10.6%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The former municipality is located in the Ilanz sub-district of the Surselva district. It is located above the Vorderrhein canyon at the entrance to the Safien Valley. It consists of the linear village of Versam and the

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 ...

of Versam-Station, Arezen, Calörtsch and Sculms.

Demographics

, Versam had a population of 226.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB
''Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter'' accessed 3 October 2012 The historical population is as follows: , 4.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. : * most of the population speaks

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...

(98.0%), with Romansh being second most common ( 1.6%) and Spanish being third ( 0.4%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 20-Nov-2009 * the gender distribution was 48.6% male and 51.4% female.Graubunden in Numbers
accessed 21 September 2009 * the age distribution was as follows:Graubunden Population Statistics
accessed 21 September 2009

Education

In Versam about 78.9% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either 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 ...

''). The nearest fachhochschules to Versam are in

Chur '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...

, such as the Chur University of Applied Sciences and Fachhochschule Graubünden.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 42.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (30.7%), the FDP (16.7%) and the CVP (9.1%).

Economy

, Versam has an unemployment rate of 0.52%. Employment and businesses were organized as follows:

Transportation

Versam-Safien station, on the line of the

Rhaetian Railway 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, ...

that links

and

Disentis Mustér (, Romansh) or Disentis (German), with its official name Disentis/Mustér is a village and a municipality in the Surselva Region in the Swiss canton of Grisons. The skiing and summer tourism resort high up in the Rhine valley is the si ...

, is located and some lower than the village of Versam, and about to the north. To solve this, a PostAuto bus service provides a direct connection between the railway station and the village, as well as to Thalkirch and Tenna. Versam was connected to Tenna in 1994 with the completion of the Aclatobel Tunnel.

Gallery

File:View from Islabord bus stop in Versam.jpg, Ruinaulta canyon as seen from Islabord bus stop File:Versam Church.jpg, Versam's church as seen from a PostAuto trip File:Chalets in Versam.jpg, Chalets in Versam File:Safien Valley from Versam.jpg, Safien Valley from Versam File:View of Chur from Versam (2011).jpg,

from Versam

References

External links

Official website
* {{authority control Safiental Villages in Graubünden Former municipalities of Graubünden