Poschiavo

Poschiavo (Italian: Poschiavo, Lombard: Pusciaaf, German: Puschlav, Romansh: Puschlav) is a municipality in the district of Bernina in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.

History

Poschiavo is first mentioned in 824 as in Postclave though this comes from a later copy of the original document.. In 1140 it was mentioned as de Pusclauio. It was formerly known by the German name of Puschlav. It owes its beauty to the imposing Renaissance style of its courtly 19th century architecture. These palazzi were built by prosperous local residents who had made their fortune abroad, particularly in Spain.

Geography

Poschiavo has an area, as of 2006, of 191 km² (74 sq mi). Of this area, 19.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 32.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (46.2%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

The municipality is located in the Poschiavo sub-district of the Bernina district. It is located in the Val Poschiavo, one of the four valleys of the Italian Graubünden, where the official language is Italian. The other valleys are Val Bregaglia, Mesolcina and Calanca. It consists of the village of Poschiavo and numerous hamlets.

Bernina Express

The Bernina Express is a train connecting Chur (or Davos) in Switzerland to Poschiavo and Tirano in Italy by crossing the Swiss Engadin Alps. For most of its journey, the train also runs along the World Heritage Site known as the Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes.

The train is operated by the Rhaetian Railway company for the purpose of sightseeing. It takes the form of an enhanced regional service between Tirano and Chur or Davos: panoramic coaches with enlarged windows and multi-lingual (English, Italian and German) audio guide on board. It is not an express in the sense of being a high-speed train; passengers must make a seat reservation either directly when they purchase Bernina Express tickets, or pay a small supplement on top of their regional train tickets. The Bernina Express is popular with tourists and connects in Tirano with the Post Bus service via Lake Como in Italy to Lugano in Switzerland.

The Albula line and the Bernina line on the Bernina Express's route were jointly declared a World Heritage Site in 2008. The trip on the Bernina Express through this World Heritage Site is a four-hour railway journey across 196 bridges, through 55 tunnels and across the Bernina Pass at 2,253 metres above sea. The entire line is 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in) (metre gauge) and electrified.

Val Poschiavo

Val Poschiavo (Lombard: Pus'ciaf, German: Puschlav) is a valley in the southern, Italian-speaking part of the Swiss canton of Graubünden (Grisons). The main town is Poschiavo.

Geography

Val Poschiavo can be reached from the Upper Engadin valley in the north via Bernina Pass (Passo del Bernina) and from the Italian comune of Livigno via Livigno Pass. In the south it stretches down to the village of Campocologno at the end of the valley, bordering directly on the Italian town of Tirano. Beneath Bernina Pass, the Val di Campo mountain valley leads up to Val Viola Pass in the northeast.

The valley is drained by the Poschiavino river, flowing through Lago di Poschiavo. Smaller lakes in its basin include Lago Bianco, Lago di Saoseo, and Lago di Val Viola. From north to south, the valley descends from an altitude of 2,300 m (7,500 ft) to 550 m (1,800 ft), passing through different altitudinal zones. The surrounding mountains of the Bernina Range and the Livigno Alps include the Piz Palü, 3,901 m (12,799 ft), Piz Cambrena, 3,606 m (11,831 ft), Piz Varuna, 3,453 m (11,329 ft), and Piz Lagalb, 2,959 m (9,708 ft).