The Districts of Poschiavo and Brusio

	These two districts form a geographical unit known as 
"Puschlav", Val Poschiavo in Italian.  Like a peninsula the 
area stretches from the heights of the Bernina pass into 
Italian territory.  The frontier runs south of Campocologno, 
slightly to the north of the valley's exit and into the 
Valtellina.  The gorge lying immediately south of the Lake of 
Poschiavo divides the valley into a northern and southern 
region, the latter also having different climatic conditions.  
In the 19th century this became the boundary between the 
districts of Poschiavo and Brusio, which had earlier formed one 
large single community in the valley.  The districts coincide 
with the territory of the two communes of the same name.  The 
actual district boundary runs past the church of Miralago.

	The name Poschiavo is derived from the Latin "Post 
lacum" - beyond the lake, which refer to the position of 
Poschiavo, the main village in the valley, beyond the lake when 
coming from the south.  Brusio goes back to a pre-Romansh name, 
and its origin is unknown.

	Although Bronze Age finds have been unearthed at 
various places, actual settlement in the valley can only be 
proved in the late Iron Age (La Tène).  It was settled from the 
south.  The Romans conquered the valley and also Rhaetia, and 
at first the valley was joined to Rhaetia, but it seems 
probable that in the late Antique period it was separated again 
and added to the Valtellina.  This connection with the south 
remained during Lombard times.  When Charlemagne became the 
sovereign of the Lombard Empire he donated the Valtellina and 
the Puschlav to the St. Denis Monastery near Paris.

	Bearing in mind the Ottonic policy in Italy, which 
brought the Bishopric of Chur with its numerous passes many 
advantages, it seems highly probably that the Puschlav was also 
separated from the south and put under the authority of the 
Bishop of Chur.  At any rate the Lords of Matsch in Vintschgau 
became the Bishop's bailiffs in Puschlav sometime after 1200.  
But even at that time the people of Puschlav enjoyed many 
rights, and the bailiffs of Matsch could, for instance, only 
lease the mines in the Puschlav with the consent of the 
communes.  The Bishop of Chur was only the temporal lord of the 
valley, the Bishop of Como being the spiritual lord - up to 
1870.  In the middle of the 14th century the Visconti of Milan 
occupied the territory, but Bishop Hartmann II retaliated and 
regained power over the valley in 1394.  It seems that the 
Bishop soon had to relinquish the territory, for in 1409 we are 
told of a rising of the people of the valley against Milan, 
during the course of which houses belonging to the Olzate 
(Olgiati) family were occupied because this family had acted as 
bailiffs for Milan.

	After they had freed themselves the people of Puschlav 
sought the protection of the Bishop of Chur, and a contract was 
made with him on 29th September 1408 which also made them 
members of the League of God's House.  Poschiavo formed a High 
Court and a jurisdiction together with Brusio.  This contract, 
and the fact that the Lords of Matsch had lost their power over 
them, brought the people of Puschlav further rights.  It must 
be borne in the mind that the people had had a form of 
self-government, with a council of 8 members, since the middle 
of the 14th century; according to some experts these rights 
must have been laid down in the statutes of the community as 
early as 1388.  They were still required to send taxes to the 
Bishop, to provide him with troops, and to accept a Podestà 
nominated by him, but in 1494 they succeeded in buying these 
last rights from the Bishop.

	The Reformation came to the valley from the north of 
Italy.  Pier Paolo Vergerio, the former Bishop of Capo 
d'Istria, founded a Protestant community in Poschiavo in 1549.  
In 1590 another came into existence at Brusio.  The printer 
Landolfi, who set up business at Poschiavo in 1594, contributed 
a great deal to the spreading of the Reformation in the Italian 
speaking and Ladin valleys, and was also reponsible for the 
Ladin translation of the New Testament.  The peaceful 
coexistence of the confessions, which, according to a contract 
made in 1572, used the same church at Poschiavo, was put to the 
test during the time of the wars in the Grisons.  A settlement 
was made between the two confessions in 1642, and the funds of 
the living were divided.

	Although the Puschlav was spared the worst of the 
religious conflicts it was greatly affected by the trials for 
witchcraft, of which there were about 150 between 1631 and 1768.

	In 1796 the people of Poschiavo were invited by a 
freedom committe from Valtellina to join the Cisalpine 
Republic.  They flatly refused this invitation, however, as 
well as similar ones that followed.  Like many other valleys of 
the Grisons the Puschlav had to suffer a French, and later an 
Austrian occupation, with all their evil consequences.  In 
August 1848 the Puschlav had to take in the "Bourbaki Armi", 
when about 20 000 civilians and soldiers under Conte Colonello 
Cavagnola were driven out of Austria across the frontier, and 
were housed and fed in the Puschlav without state aid.

	The new division of the Canton in the middle of the 
19th century led to the partition of the former large commune 
into two communes and districts, and thus put an end to the 
conflict between the northern and southern parts of the valley 
which had gone on for centuries.  The south had felt that it 
had been disregarded when the official appointments were made 
in the Valtellina, and also when the pensions were 
distributed.  Another sore point was the fact that the election 
of the Podestà or the chief justice had been made without the 
participation of the people of Brusio.

	In 1874 the small mountain village of Cavaione was 
added to the district of Brusio.  When the Valtellina was 
separated from the Grisons this village was in no-man's-land, 
as the frontier had not been well-enough defined.  It became 
part of the Grisons as the result of a contract between Italy 
and Switzerland.

	For many centuries the economic and cultural life of 
the valley was greatly influenced by the fact that many people 
went into foreign service as soldiers, or emigrated as 
craftsmen.  Many worked in Venice, but later, after the Grisons 
had put an end to the union with the Doge in 1764, they went to 
Rome and other Italian towns, as well as to France, Spain, 
England, Poland, and Russia.  They worked as confectioners and 
opened cafés, and many became wealthy and respected citizens - 
a fact from which their native valley profited.

Famous people of the Puschlav:

	Paganino Gaudenzio (1595-1649) from Poschiavo.  After 
having studied Protestant theology and law he bacame a parson 
in his native valley.  Later he converted to Catholicism and 
went to Rome, where he held the chair for Greek and Sapienza 
University.  In 1628 he was called to the Atheneum at Pisa, 
where he was Professor of Italian Literature; later he became 
Professor of Feudal Law, a post which he held until the time of 
his death.  Gaudenzio is considered to be the greatest 
professor of literature and the foremost Latinist of the 17th 
century.  In politics he stood for "candore", i.e., sincerity 
and honesty, and throughout his life he firmly upheld the idea 
of tolerance.  Fortunat von Sprecher rightly praised him as a 
shining example of our native country.

	Felice Menghini (1909-1947) from Poschiavo.  He studied 
theology at Chur; later he studied literature at the Catholic 
University of Milan, where he graduated.  Menghini was a 
journalist and writer, but above all he was a poet - "the poet 
of Puchlav". Guiseppe Zoppi did not hesitate to call him the 
best writer from the Italian-speaking Grisons.

District Coat of Arms:

	Poschiave:  Gules, two keys crossed silver connected 
with chain silver.  Blazonry:  This coat of arms is well 
testified by seals, illustrations and prints, and an old flag 
(ca. 1500).  District colours:  red-white.

	Brusio:  Gules, cross silver.  Blazonry:  It is taken 
from a seal dating from the second decade of the 17th century, 
bearing the inscription - *SUB*HOC*SIGNO*VINCES, but the 
inscription has not been used.  The colours are those of the 
old common court of the Puschlav.  District colours: red-white.