The Districts of Obstana, Untertasna and Remüs

	The three districts of the Lower Engadine have had a 
common historic development for the centuries.  For this reason 
they are treated together in this short historical survey, 
without neglecting the special character of each district.
	
	The District of Obtasna (Romansh Sur Tasna) on the left 
side of the valley extends from Punt ota between Chinous-chel 
and Brail as far as Val Tasna, on the right side of the valley 
as far as the crest between Val Plavna and Val S-charl.  It 
comprises the political communes of Ardez, Guarda, Lavin, 
Susch, Tarasp, and Zernez.

	The District of Untertasna (Romansh Suot Tasna) 
stretches on the left side of the valley from Val Tasna to Val 
Sinestra, and on the right side of the Inn from the crest Piz 
Pisoc - Piz Travrü to the heights of Ramosch.  Val Fenga, the 
uppermost part of the valley of Fimb, also belongs to it.  The 
District of Untertasna comprises the political communes of 
Ftan, Schuol, and Sent.

	The District of Remüs (Romansh Ramosch) stretches on 
the left side of the Inn from Val Sinestra as far as the 
frontier of Switzerland; on the right side of the Inn it 
includes the territory between the crest of the S-chalambert 
and the frontier, which runs along the Inn at Martina.  The 
territory of Samnaun also forms part of the district of Remüs, 
to which the political communes of Ramosch, Samnaun and Tschlin 
belong.

	The name Ramosch goes back to Latin Eremusa, which is 
derived from Greek Eremondia, meaning hermitage.  Tradition has 
it that St. Florinus lived here as a hermit, and the cult can 
be traced back to early times.

	There is archeological evidence of continuous 
settlement in the Lower Engadine dating from the intermediate 
and late Bronze Age.  Important finds have been made at Muotta 
dal Clüs near Zernez, at Padnal near  Susch, on the hill of the 
church of Scuol, and Motatta near Ramosch.  In the late Bronze 
Age and the early Iron Age the whole territory belonged to the 
civilisation of Melaun, which can also be found in southern 
Tyrol; in the intermediate and late Iron Age it belonged to the 
Fritzen-Sanzeno civilisation.  It is the centre of the 
territory of the Rhaetians.  The Roman period is represented by 
a number of coin finds.

	During the Frankish period the Lower Engadine was part 
of the Ministerium Remedii.  Together with the Vintschgau it 
formed a duch, where the Bishop of Chur and the Dukes of tyrol 
fought for sovereignty.

	The bishop founded his claim to sovereignty on his 
diocesian as well as his seignorial rights.  His property in 
the Lower Engadine was based on two endowments by Henry I and 
Otto I.  In addition to these the diocese acquired various 
properties in the following centuries.  One of these was 
Steinsberg, which formed around the castle of the same name 
near Ardez and was purchased by the bishop in 1209.  Later it 
was mortgaged several times.  The domain of Tarasp, which had 
as its centre the castle of the same name built by a family 
from the Vintschgau, came into the possession of the bishop in 
1177.  He, however, soon fieffed it to the Ministerials of 
Reichenberg (see below).  the castle and domain of Tschanüff 
near Ramosch were purchased by the bishop in 1394; sometime 
before this he was in possession of Wildenburg at Zernez for a 
short time.  The monastery of Marienberg in the Vintschgau 
possessed large domains in Ftan and Ardez, which accounts for 
the political connection between these two neighbourhoods later.

	The Lords of Matsch also held large properties.  But 
they were on the side of the other party claiming sovereignty 
in the Lower Engadine - the Dukes of Tyrol.  The latter based 
their claims on the ducal rights, which not only incuded civil 
and penal rights over their own serfs but, more important in 
this connection, they also held the high court rights over the 
subjects of the bishop.  The Dukes of Tyrol had leased the 
right of jurisdiction to the Lords of Matsch.

	Within the ducal jurisdiction of Nauders, to which the 
Lower Engadine belonged, the neighbourhoods were divided into 
two lower courts, Lower and Upper Montfallun.  The name goes 
back to a hill near the road halfway between Sent and Scuol.  
Scuol, Sent, Tschlin, and Ramosch with Samnaun belonged to 
Lower Montfallun, whereas Zernez, Susch, Lavin, Guarda, Ardez 
and Ftan formed part of Upper Montfallun.  The court of Lower 
Montfallun met at "Chünettas" near the Inn below Sent, for 
Upper Montfallun it was "Puniasca" near Susch.

	The subjects of the bishop came under the jurisdiction 
of Nauders only for criminal cases.  In civil matters they had 
their own courts, which had developed out of the property 
rights:
	1.  Untertasna with Tschlin, Sent, Scuol and Ftan.
	2.  Obtaasna with all the neighbourhoods from Val Tasna 
up to Pont ota.
	3.  Remüs with all the territory belonging to the 
castle; only after the 15th century were Tschlin and Samnaun 
included.

	In these disputes between the bishopric and Austria 
about the sovereignty of the country a third power appeared in 
the 15th century: the communes that had united in the League of 
God's House in 1367 and eventually became the dominant power.  
They had arisen from the market co-operations and had succeeded 
in gaining certain civil rights.  As early as the 16th century 
some neighbourhoods had claimed the right to set up local 
statutes and laws.  Comparable to the development in the Upper 
Engadine there was a movement towards independence on a local 
level.  Thus the election of the "Mastral", the magistrate, was 
not the right of the jurisdictions but of the neighbourhoods.  
The deputies for the legislative assembly of the Three Leagues 
were not chosen by the people but by the neighbourhoods 
according to a rota.  The majority in the jurisdictions was not 
based on the number of the members but on the neighbourhoods, 
and was similar to the procedure in the Three Leagues.  Within 
the League of God's House the jurisdictions of Obtasna and 
Untertasna formed the high court of the Lower Engadine; Remüs 
with Stalla/Avers formed their own high court.  This division 
formed the basis for the distribution of the office and 
revenues from subject territory, as well as for taxation.  
Samnaun held a special position within the jurisdiction of 
Remüs, as it was not put on the same level as the 
neighbourhoods of Ramosch and Tschlin in matters concerning 
civil and criminal rights but was represented by Ramosch.

	In 1464 Tarasp passed from the Reichenbergs to the 
Lords of Matsch and later to the Dukes of Toggenburg; 
afterwards it was purchased by Austria.  The disputes about the 
sovereign rights reached a climax in the wars against Swabia in 
1499, but before that there was the so-called "poultry war" in 
1475, because the people from the Lower Engadine refused to 
deliver their hens at carnival time.  In March 1499 the valley 
was invaded by 8000 Tyroleans, who bragged that they had burned 
down more than a dozen villages, killed and hanged many people, 
and stolen 6000 cows.  36 hostages were taken and killed at 
Meran after the battle at Calven.  But after Calven the 
question of sovereignty still remained unsettled.  During the 
wars of the Grisons the Lower Engadine suffered greatly during 
the invasion by the Austrian Colonel Baldiron and his 8000 men 
in Octover 1621, and the second Austrian attack in August 1622 
was even worse.  Almost all the villages were ransacked and 
afterwards burned to the ground.

	It was only after the treaty of 3rd July 1652 that Suot 
Montfallun (Scuol, Sent, Ramosch with Samnaun and Tschlin) 
succeeded in buying off the Austrian rights for 12,000 
guilders; Sur Montfallun (Zernez, Susch, Lavin, Guarda, Ardez 
and Ftan) had to pay 14,000 guilders.  Tarasp remained 
Auistrian until it was sold to the Dietrichsteings in 1687.

	Due to the influence of Philipp Gallicius the 
Reformation started at Lavin and Guarda in 1529, and finally 
reached Zernez in 1553.  Only Tarasp, which was still Austrian, 
and Samnaun, kept the old belief.  At Samnaun a settlement was 
finally reached in 1651, whereby both confessions had the right 
to use the church.  But because of its isolation the Protestant 
community became smaller and smaller, and today Smnaun is 
totally Catholic.

	The period of the French Revolution in 1799 brought the 
Lower Engadine the same troubles that all the other valleys of 
the Grisons had to suffer: plundering, compulsory transports, 
and billeting and supplying goods to troops without payment, 
demands made by the French as well as the Austrians.

	When the Grisons joined the Confederation in 1803, 
Tarasp became part of the Grisons.

	The law on the division of the canton in 1851 turned 
the former jurisdictions of Obtasna, Untertasna and Remüs into 
districts, Tarasp being included in the district of Obtasna.

	The economy of the Lower Engadine was mostly determined 
by cattle raising and agriculture.  The wood from the large 
forests was the further important source of income for many 
communes such as Zernez, which for many centures supplied wood 
for the saltpan at Hall in Tyrol.  The silver mines in Val 
S-char played an important role in the mining industry of 
Rhaetia, but the mines at Ofenberg were given up at an early 
date.

	The transport trade was not as important for the Lower 
Engadine as for the upper part.  The traffic on the route along 
the valley - known as the "via imperiala" - connecting Tyrol 
with Lombardy was, however, big enough to support a 
considerable number of the inhabitants.  In the 16th century 
tradesmen started to emigrate, first glaziers and shoemakers, 
and later confectioners.  In the second half of the 19th 
century the spas and the tourist trad opened up new sources of 
income.

	The language of the three districts is the Ladin 
dialect of the Romansh language, with the exception of Samnaun, 
which ws Germanised at the beginning of the 19th century.  The 
foundation of the printing works at Schuls in 1659 by the tow 
parsons J.P. Saluz and J. Dorta was of special importance in 
the history of the language, as it was there that the first 
translation of the Bible into the Romansh of the Lower Engadine 
appeared in 1679.

	Famous people from the Lower Engadine:

	Durich Chiampel (1510 - 1582) from Susch.  He was a 
forerunner of the new belief in the Engadine.  In 1562 he wrote 
"ün Cudesch da Psalms", the first evangelical hymn-book in the 
Romansch language.  Chiampel's and Bifrun's works raised the 
Romansh language of the people, which at that time was 
neglected and despised, to the level of a written language.
	With his two books "Raetia alpestris topographica 
descriptio", as study of his native country, and "Historia 
totius Raetiae" Chiampel became the father of all the Rhaetian 
historiographers.

	Otto Barblan (1860-1943) from Vna.  After qualifying as 
a teacher he studied music at the conservatory at Stuttgart and 
became a teacher of music at the cantonal school at Chur in 
1885.  In 1887 he was appointed organist at St. Peter's 
Cathedral, Geneva; he was active in Geneva for fifty years as 
organist, conductor and teacher at the conservatory.  He 
composed many works for the organ, and his St. Luke's Passion 
(1919) became well known, as did the music he wrote for the 
Calven festival (1899).  He also arranged and edited the 
hymn-book of the Lower Engadine.  As he had done so much for 
the development of church music in Protestant Switzerland the 
University of Geneva conferred upon him the title of Doctor 
honoris causa, and in the same year (1937) the town of Geneva 
gave him the freedom of the city.  Barblan kept up contact 
with the people of the Grisons throughout his life, and they 
consider him as their greatest musician.

	Peider Lansel (1863-1943) from Sent.  He was a merchant 
at Livorno and Geneva.   He may be considered as one of the 
most important poets of the Engadine.  His courageous stand for 
the linguistic and cultural independence of the Romansh 
language against fascist attacks made him known far beyond the 
boundaries of his home country at a time of political upheaval.

District coat of Arms:

	Obtasna: Party silver and sable; silver, semi-ibex 
sable with claws gules.  Blazonry: Obtasna is distinguished 
from Untertasna by the way the coat of arms is divided and the 
change of colours, by means of which the terms "upper" and 
"lower" are symbolised heraldically without changing the 
important elements of the district coat of arms.  The black 
ibex on silver is the traditional animal in the district coat 
of arms.  The colours are those of the League of God's House.  
(Compare the district of Untertasna.)  
District colours: white-black.

	Untertasna:  Party sable and silver; silver, semi-ibex 
sable with claws gules.  Blazonry:  The coat of arms bears the 
ibex as the traditional animal in the coat of arms of 
Untertasna and is distinguished from the one of Obtasna by the 
division and the change of colours, thus symbolising the terms 
"upper" and "lower" in the heraldic division of the shield.  
Contrary to Obtasna the ibex is shown in the lower half of the 
shield.  The colours are those of the League of God's House.  
(Compare the district of Obtasna.)
District colours: black-white.

	Remüs:  Gold, rampant unicorn sable with claws gules on 
tripartite mountain vert.  Blazonry:  The coat of arms goes 
back to the one of the Lords of Remüs, originally a free family 
which called itself after the castle of Remüs and which became 
ministerials of the bishopric of Chur at a very early time.  
The present coat of arms can also be found in the quarter of 
the Planta family crest, which was laid down in a letter from 
the bishop.  Each quarter of their coat of arms points to a 
territory in which branches of the Planta family possessed 
rights.  The quarter "Remüs" bears a unicorn.  Thus the unicorn 
appearing in the coat of arms of the district is doubly 
accounted for.  District colours: yellow-black.