History
Name and Location
In contrast to the elevated plain of the Upper Engadin, where the upper reaches of the Inn River flow gently down the valley, the geological background of the Lower Inn Valley formed a very different landscape. The right flank of the valley, the Lower Engadin Dolomites, is highly jagged, densely forested and steep. Glaciers and rivers have marked the left side of the valley in many different ways, where the geological structure has allowed for the formation of a fairly broad valley floor and sofly rising, rounded landscape features with high-lying terrases.
On an extensive mountain terrace, a good 250m above the River Inn, and at the end of the Alpine side valley « Val Tuoi », lies Guarda (1653m/5423 feet above sea level). In Giarsun, a hamlet on the valley bottom that belongs to Guarda, the access route to the village starts its climb past the sloping meadows, passing the little Rhaetian Railway train station and winding its short way up to the western entrance to the village. Since 1865, when the new valley road from Lavin to Ardez was built, Guarda has missed out on the heavy flow of traffic. This situation gave the village an economic disadvantage ; however for the preservation of the village’s appearance it has been extremely fortunate.
The village name « Warda » first appeared in the year 1160 in a deed of gift of the nobles of Tarasp to the Bishop of Chur. Stemming from the Old German word « warda », the name meens « lookout point ». It can no longer be established whether this term originally referred to a watch tower whose foundations supposedly lie beneath the now disused shooting range (built in 1910). It is more probable that the route of the Lower Engadin valley road from the Middle Ages, which passed its highest point in Guarda, gave the place its name. To this very day people still enjoy the magnificent view up and down the Inn Valley from this « lookout point ».
General History
From the year 15 B.C. the Engadin was part of the Roman province Raetia, and from the end of the 2nd Century the valley belonged to the « Raetia prima » province. Romansch, the variety of ‘Ladin’ still spoken in the Engadin, originally dates back to this period. The Roman provincial apparatus survived into the time of Charlemagne, who continued the Roman system of law. In 960 the Lower Engadin was brought into county of Vintschgau, a title held by the Counts of the Tyrol from 1140. From this point possession of the Lower Engadin became increasingly complicated. The rights of the Bishops of Chur clashed with the entitlements of the Counts of the Tyrol as well as those of the Marienberg monastery in the Upper Vintschgau, now in Italy. In 1363 Margareta Maultatsch, the last representative of the house of Tyrol, passed the Lower Engadin on to her cousin, the Duke of Habsburg-Austria. Meanwhile on the religious front there had been a threatening increase in Austrian influence over the selection of the occupant of the Bishop’s seat at Chur, which played a part in giving rise to the « League of God’s House », to which the Engadin belonged. In 1424 the « Upper » or « Grey League » and in 1436 the « League of Ten Juristictions » were formed. Linked with each other through various part-alliances, by the 15th century they acted together as the « Three Leagues ». The question of possession of the Lower Engadin was as abstruse as before and continually led to disputes, which led in 1475 to armed conflict between the forces of the Leagues and the Austrians. As the cause was allegedly the refusal of the « Shrovetide Chicken », a yearly levy paid to the Austrians, the struggle went down in history as the « War of the Hens ». On 28th February 1494 Guarda separated from the mother church in Ardez and became an independent parish. In the Swabian War (1499) the village almost entirely burnt down, only a few houses and the church were saved.
The struggles in the Swabian War, which at long last resulted in victory (Battle of Calven, 1499), the conquest of the Valtellina region, the counties of Worms (Bormio), Kläven (Chiavenna) and the ‘Pievi’ (parishes) on Lake Como (1512) as well as the formal inauguration of the Free State of Rhaetia (1524), significantly strengthened regional consciousness. But the first test for the young republic was not long in coming.
The split in beliefs that had struck to the north did not take long to reach the Lower Engadin. Under the driving force of the preacher Philipp Gallicius (1504 – 1566) Guarda and the neighbouring parish of Lavin adopted the new doctrine in December 1529. In addition to the almost century-long dispute over old and new beliefs the Leagues were soon burdened by further inner conflicts that were to have devastating consequences for many valleys.
The positions of the great powers of Europe became increasingly clear. Spain-Milan joined with Austria, France and the Venetian Republic. In the middle of this field of tension lay the Three Leagues, the land of mountain passes. In order to secure the politically, strategically and economically important routes and mountain crossings for themselves, the involved parties attempted to win over influential local families as allies with the help of so-called ‘pensions’ – bribes. The horrific slaughter of protestants in the Valtellina region marked the start of the« Bündner Wirren » (Graubunden Riots), in which the Catholic Planta family and their reformist adversaries the Salis family had a decisive involvement. This did not herald good prospects.
On 26th October 1621 the Austrian commander Baldiron invaded the valley with a powerful army. Amidst murder and pillage he marched over the Flüela Pass into the Prättigau region, then scarcely a year later had to retreat to Chiavenna with his German and Spanish soldiers following an uprising by the local population. With 20 newly formed companies Baldiron avenged his defeat decisively, moving out from Val Müstair on 31st August 1622. Numerous Lower Engadine villages were razed to the ground, the population were barely able to save life and limb. This brutal campaign of destruction was also a fundamental event for the history of settlement and architecture of the area. In 1652, four years after the end of the Thirty Years War, whose side effect had been the provocation of the Graubünden Riots, the Engadin was able to buy out its remaining rights from the last Habsburg. Once more, in 1798-1800, when the French and Austrians were again wrangling over the coveted region, the Engadin became a battlefield. The Lower Engadin was particularly badly affected, left at the mercy of plundering troops. In 1803 Guarda became a municipality of the newly founded Swiss canton Graubünden.
Geographic, Economic and Social History
It has not yet been possible to prove whether the Engadin was inhabited as early as the Stone Age. However, various archaeologial finds prove the existence of significant settlement during the late Bronze Age. In 1938 minor discoveries were made on the edge of a large stone rampart on the « Patnal » above Giarsun, dating back to the prehistoric era. These days the dating of archaeological remains has proven controversial. The huge, ca. 120m long, 9m high and today largely overgrown stone mound (ca. 10,000 m3) could have belonged to Iron Age fortifications. In any case, it is by no means incorrect to mention that the meadow names « Padnal », « Patnal », « Pedenal » etc. both within and outside of Graubünden frequently indicate comparable pieces of land, where archaeological excavations have clearly proven the existence of prehistoric strongholds, which in some cases saw continual use well into the Middle Ages.
It can be assumed that the Lower Engadine has seen continuous settlement, with varying levels of intensity, from the early cultures, through the so far insufficiently researched Roman era, into the Middle Ages. In the first millenium the ecclesiastical centre of Ramosch is mentioned, followed by others ; as early as the High Middle Ages enclosed villages such as Tschlin, Sent, Scuol, Ftan or Zernez. Guarda was at that time still a modest farming community and lay on the edge of the main area of settlement. This marginal zone, including the Upper Val Müstair and Samnaun, was able to develop significantly in the course of the 13th and 14th centuries. In Guarda too the gradual disappearance of the more spread out elements of settlement and the development of a concentrated core could be noted during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Era. In 1573 the chronicler Durich Chiampell was still describing now vanished hamlets such as Auasagna (« Aqua sana », with a mineral spring) to the east and Guarda Pitschen to the west of the main settlement in his « Rhaetiae Alpestris Topographica Descriptio ». But by the time of Nicolaus Sererhard’s « Delineation » of local communities in the year 1742, Auasagna is described as an « uninhabited hamlet, abandoned long ago » ; today some stone blocks are still visible in the hollow that lies between Guarda and Bos-cha, all that remains to remind us of Auasagna.
Livestock farming and cultivation of the land as well as the particular geographical situation on a busy route for goods transport, marked the development of the village location as soon as the early Late Middle Ages. The arisal of shortages of agricultural land led the Guarda farmers to move up to the various meadows beyond the glaciers of the Silvretta Range. These territories, lying in what is now the Austrian Paznaun Valley, were only sold in the 19th century.
In its substance the village we see today broadly goes back to the time of the reconstruction after the Austrian assault of 1622. Even though the Engadine Road never acheived the importance of the major routes over the Septimer, Julier, Resia and Brenner passes, a considerable part of the transit traffic between Lake Como and Innsbruck nevertheless passed through the valley and hence also through Guarda. The chance to profit from this traffic was seized by numerous locals. The operation of inns and facilities for storing goods was profitable and compensated for the loss of earnings from the wood trade. While the rest of the Lower Engdin unhesitatingly carried out deforestation and floated entire forests down the River Inn into the Tyrol, Guarda, as one of the least forested communities, learnt early on to be economical in its use of wood.
Just as elsewhere, during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, many residents of Guarda emigrated to far-off countries, to work there as cobblers, confectioners, café owners, or to try their luck in any way possible. We come across Engadiners as soldiers and officers in the service of foreign armies. A complete and universal social and historical evalutation of the phemomenon of traditional Engadin migration is not possible without going into much greater detail, but one thing is sure ; emigration periodically produced social consequences which, for better or for worse, reached right into the vilages and homes of those who remained.
While other towns – in the Lower Engadin primarily Scuol – were able to build up successful tourist industries in this century, little Guarda, far from the beaten track, was denied this. Since then both small and large tourist centres have had to fight against the defacement of their villages and against an irreversable loss of their identity, which has been gnawed away by the invasion of mass tourism. Guarda has drawn consequences from this lesson ; every visitor is a welcome guest, but the hustle and bustle of great hoards of tourists is something the people of Guarda would rather do without.
Extract from : Guarda, Not Caviezel, © Schweizer Kunstführer, published by the Society for Swiss Art History.
Link: www.gsk.ch.
