The Districts of Jenaz and Luzein

	These two districts have had a common history for a 
long time.  In the old division of the country they were for 
many centuries one juristiction, Castels.  This is the reason 
why they are treated together in this survey.

	The district of Jenaz situated on the left side of the 
river Landquart reasches from the mouth of the Schanielabach - 
Christenstein to the district boundary further down the valley 
opposite the mouth of the Buchner gorge, runs uphill round the 
Furner Berg and then goes south towards Hochwang.  The district 
of Jenaz comprises the political communes of Fideris, Furna and 
Jenaz.

	The district of Luzein comprises the catchment area of 
the Schanielabach (St. Antönien) as well as the part of the 
main valley between the Schanielabach and a line beginning at 
the Landquart, following the lower part of the Buchner Tobel to 
Chüenihorn, and reaching the crest at Garschinafurgga.  The 
district includes the political communes of Luzein, St. 
Antönien-Ascharina, St. Antönien-Castels, and St. 
Antönien-Rüti.

	The names Jenaz and Luzein are of pre-Roman origin and 
their etymology is unknown.

	Although there are hardly and prehistoric finds, 
experts believe that the territory of the two districts, like 
the lower part of the Prätigau, must have been settled fairly 
densely in those times.

	The Frankish division at the beginning of the 9th 
century joined the territory to the Ministerium Curisinum.  
After the decline of the Frankish duchy the Dukes of Bregenz 
became the sovereigns.  In the Middle Ages the villages of 
Fideris, Furna, Jenaz, Luzein, Pany, and St. Antönien-Castels 
belonged to the territory with Castels Castle as the centre of 
their sovereignty.

	From the Dukes of Bregenz the territory passed to Hugo 
of Tübingen by marriage, then to his son, Hugo I of Montfort 
and through a sister of the last Baron of Vaz it came into the 
possession of Ulrich of Aspermont.  After the death of his 
widow thee lower part of the Prätigau was divided amongst his 
heirs in 1344.  Ulrich of Matsch, whose mother was a daughter 
of the last Baron of Vaz, came into possession of the 
sovereignty of Castels.

	In 1392 the Dukes of Toggenburg took possession, but 
after the death of Friederich VII, Castels went back to the 
Lords of matsch in 1436.  In 1496 Duke Guadenz of Matsch, Duke 
of Kirchberg, sold the sovereignty to Emperor Maximilian of 
Austria for 11,000 guilders.

	Walsers from Davos settled in the territory of the two 
districts after the 14th century.  First they settled at St. 
Antönien.  In 1389 they received from Duke Donat of Toggenburg 
the estate of Tarnorz (Tarnuz) on the left of the valley on the 
west slope of the Girenspitz.  Further down the valley they were 
known as "Walsers ab Danusen" from 1394 onwards.  At the 
beginning of the 15th century there is also evidence of 
"Walsers ab Furnen", but they were a small minority at that 
time.  The various settlements of the Walsers led to the 
Germanisation of the whole territory of Castels, which was 
originally Romansh-speaking.

	On 8th June 1436 the land and court of Castels with the 
magistrate Joos Cresta joined the League of Ten Jurisdictions.  
The procedure for the appointment of the magistrate was the 
following:  The Austrian bailiff in the Prätigau, who resided 
at Castels Castle proposed three men, one of whom was chosen by 
the people of the court.  The prison serving the criminal 
courts of Schiers and Castels was also in Castels Castle.  The 
civil court consisted of the magistrate and 13 jurymen.  In 
1622 the jurisdiction was divided into two half-jurisdictions:  
Castels-Luzein and Castels-Jenaz.  They were separated by the 
river Landquart.

	At the time of the Reformation St. Antönien was the 
first commune in the Prätigau to join the new faith in 1524; 
the other villages were soon to follow.

	Castels Castle was taken by the people of the Grisons 
during the Swabian wars on 17th February 1499, but it had to be 
handed back again.  In the wars of the Grisons it was besieged 
and destroyed by the rebellious people of the Prätigau but was 
retaken in September by Duke Sulz.  Later it was rebuilt 
according to a stipulation in the treaty of Lindau.  After the 
Austrian rights had been bought in 1649 the people of the 
valley razed this symbol of foreign sovereignty.

	At Luzein was the home of the Sprechers, a family whose 
political influence equalled that of the Salis and Planta 
families for many years.

	 At the time of the French Revolution the two 
jurisdictions Luzein and Jenaz were strongly opposed to the 
Grisons joining the Helvetian Republic, which was due to the 
fact that the lower Prätigau was so near to Montafun in 
Austria, which supplied them with corn and salt.

	After the new division of the canton in 1851 the two 
half-jurisdictions Castels-Luzein and Castels-Jenaz b3ecame 
districts, but the whole valley of St. Antönien, including 
Ascharina and Rüti on the left of the valley, which had 
formerly belonged to the jurisdiction of 
Klosters-Ausserschnitz, were joined to the district of Luzein.

Personalities from the districts of Jenaz and Luzein:

	Jakob Ulrich Sprecher von Bernegg (1765-1841) from 
Luzein.  He studied law and plitical sciences at the 
universities of Wittenberg and Jena where he came into contact 
with the ideas of liveralism.  When he returned home in 1790 he 
devoted himself to politics.  He was one of the ambassadors who 
went to Rastatt and Paris to negotiate the recovery of the 
Rhaetian territories.  In 1801 he became a member of the 
councis, where he favoured a union with Switzerland.  In the 
many offices he held in the canton of the Grisons he rendered 
valuable services in organising finances and in making civil 
and criminal laws.

	Georg Fient (1845-1915) from Pany.  He was first a 
schoolmaster and then became the editor of the newly-founded 
"Prättigauer Zeitung".  In 1881 he bacame secretary to the 
cantonal government and in 1892 chancellor.  He was the author 
of many well-known books on citizenship and on local history.  
His stories in the dialect of the Prättigau and especially the 
character "Studäfridli" which he created made him extremely 
popular.

District Coat of Arms:

	Jenaz: azure, "vol" gold with three molets gold 
thereon.  Blazonry:  The seal of the former court of 
Castels-Jenaz of 1648 showed the "demi-vol" of Matsch with the 
wild man as shield-bearer.  The three gold stars represent the 
communes of the district Fideris, Furna, and Jenaz.  District 
colours: blue-yellow.

	Luzein: Gold, "demi-vol" azure. Blazonry:  The seal of 
the High Court of Castels, (Castels-Luzein-Jenaz) dating from 
1684, shows the "demi-vol" of Matsch, the shield-bearer being 
the wild man with a fir tree and a flag.  In 1822 there is a 
Latin cross in the shield, the wild man with the fir tree being 
kept as shield-bearer.  The older version based on the court 
seal of 1684 is the correct heraldic and historic one.  
District colours: yellow-blue.