HISTORIA
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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
Ardez - Life in a small village
Resarch group: Fabienne, Iulia, Hurmet
General informations
© Beno Baumberger
Ardez is a beautiful village situated in the mountains, ten minutes from Scuol. Even if it's a small community with 440 habitants, one can discover the cultural richness of the village. From the top of the castle Steinsberg on the hill, you'll have a great view over the village. In the past you could see a separation between the two parts of Ardez, Sur En and Bos-cha, today the village is grown together.
Migration
In Ardez, there are not only natives but also a lot of immigrants, mostly from Italy, Austria and Germany. One of the natives we met is Jon Claglüna. He's a retired primary teacher who was born in Ardez and lived 38 years in Pontresina and came back to the village in 1995. We also met an immigrant, Theresa Gray. She was born in 1947 in Basel (Switzerland) and came with her family to Ardez in 1965. She was travelling a lot and lived many years in Canada, Nevada (USA) and Africa before she came back to Ardez. She's working now as a tourist guide in Guarda and Ardez.
© Beno Baumberger
They both told us about migration and culture in this village. The village got already in contact with immigrants a hundred years ago, Italian season workers came to Ardez to help on the farms. The permanent immigrants mostly were women who married a local man. They mostly learned quickly the Romansh and got used to the customs here. Due to the early contact and influence with the Italians and the Austrians, they never were strangers to the lower Engadine. Jon Claglüna told us, that they even feel more related to the neighbour countries than to the other parts of Switzerland. This thought was confirmed by Theresa Gray. She and even her parents never felt totally accepted by the local habitants, the immigrants were always kind of "stamped". This may be due to the proud that the natives have of their culture and traditions, of their uniqueness.
One point between migration and culture is the religion in Ardez. In the area of the lower Engadine there are a lot of protestants, but when the catholic immigrants came, they interrupted this tradition. After many years of arguing, they finally got the permission to build a catholic church in 1871, under the conditions to be small, to have just one bell and to be outside of the village.
Culture
© Beno Baumberger
Even if Ardez is a small village it is rich of cultural events and festivities as well as interesting sights. Many of the houses are signed by their extraordinary ornaments. Many years ago, a rich family called Plantas, used to live in the village. Their noble houses influence a lot the structure and image of Ardez. There also are a lot of stories about emigrants who got rich in other countries and renovated their houses in Ardez expensively.
© Beno Baumberger
Ardez's most impressive landmark is the ruin of the Castle Steinsberg, from where you get an impressive view over the whole village. The Castle dates back to 1209 and changed hands many times over the years. In 1499, the Castle was burned down during the war against Austria. The ruins were never rebuilt, but the tower is open for guided tourist tours today.
In the centre of the village, Switzerlands first Protestant gothic
church with galleries was constructed in 1576-77. It is still an
important place for the locals to go to.
Apart from these two
cultural places, there are a lot of cultural possibilities for the
habitants of Ardez, to participate in social life. There's a choir, a
theatre group, an orchestra, Gymnastics and Indiaka, a rather unknown
sport, similar to feather ball.
As we can see, the social life in Ardez is really practised, even too practised, as Theresa Gray mentions. "The people gossip a lot in this village, and I just have to know how far I will go participating in this kind of social life. I just go to a certain point and keep distance to the people." But she also says that people are really humble and simple and after all, they're forgiving. The natives of Ardez always treat you nice and polite, even if you're not really a part of the local society as an immigrant.
All over the year the village has a great culture of festivities. 1st
of March the celebration of the "Chalanda Marz" takes place. Young boys
are walking with cow bells through the village and try to chase away
the winter by singing spring songs. On the afternoon, the government
will be elected and formed in a new way.
24th of June there's another
important event related to the theme of fertility which is only
celebrated in Ardez. Every girl and all the young women are supposed to
give an egg to the young boys who are coming to their houses for
collecting them. If the women won't give the eggs, the boys will
sprinkle the houses with water.
Personal impressions
Because of our small group we managed to communicate together in an easy way. Our expectations weren't high but in the end we understood, that Ardez is a village with real cultural richness.
Both, Jon Claglüna and Theresa Gray had a huge impact on us, especially Miss Gray. When she described all the places she had been and all the cultural experiences she made we remained speechless. All this knowledge about migration and social life in a village as well as the new places we've been will remain in our minds forever.
