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EUSTORY Academies in 2008
24 September – 01 October 2008 in Scuol (Lower Engadine), Switzerland
The Engadine – Life in a remote but internationally connected mountain valley
Vná
Research group:
Julia Ana, Vaya, Sarah, Dace
© Beno Baumberger
We went to Vná to find out information about agriculture and migration.
Vná is one of the three fractions of the village Ramosch. It is a small village with 70 inhabitants and it is situated near the mountain Piz Arina about 1602 meters above sea-level. It is supposed to be the driest and warmest spot of all Switzerland. This guarantees a rich production of vegetables and grain. We were surprised that there is only an old school building which is closed nowadays, there are also no shops. There were, though, two hotels with two restaurants and a protestant church which was build in the 17th century but without a cemetery.Vná is an old village which was never burned down and that is the reason why the old structures still exist with narrowed streets and old houses with some exceptions. The small village dies out because of emigration and a lot of houses are empty. Only old people and young children live there because the young people prefer living in cities.
© Beno Baumberger
To find out more about migration we interviewed Iris Riatsch, whose parents emigrated to France. She immigrated from Zürich to Vná. She had not a lot of problems to integrate because she came to Vná as a child and was well known in the village. But sometimes she was troubled by the others e.g. when she wanted to open a kindergarten and another woman reproached her that she could not educate their children. As a young woman she came to this village for holidays and met here her actual husband. In 1973 they started with two cows to build up a biological farm, they do not use any pesticides. Now her son leads the farm. They own 40 hectares of land where they keep their cows. On their Alps they grow a special kind of flower, the Blaudistel. They also produce cheese which is very famous in the lower parts of the Engiadine. Usually they have excellent weather and do not need to buy food for the cows. In dry summers they use a modern irrigation system.
© Beno Baumberger
We also interviewed a forest engineer called Duri Könz. He moved from
Guarda to Vná because he always loved the nature and the mountains. His
love to nature was the reason why he has chosen this profession. His
labor includes planning the structure of the forest and protecting the
flora and the fauna. He is a man who likes living in Vná - in the
silence and in the green - but two of his four children have already
left for Zürich and Bern and the other two are already planning to
leave. As we arrived our first impression was that we have made a time
travel because we cannot believe that this village belongs to such a
wealthy country like Switzerland.
There are many old houses, few
of them are run - down and the streets are narrowed. In four hours we
only met two indigenous, this is a sign for the calm atmosphere in this
village. When you are in Vná you can admire a beautiful view of the
mountain and the valley.
© Beno Baumberger
