Autonomous Province of Bozen - South Tyrol – Abteilung Generic

Culture » Fine arts / architecture »

Rumantschia

Until 1300 the evidences of artistic creations in the Grisons were exclusively restricted to the sacral and religious sector, even if there are single traces of profane wall paintings which date back to the period of time around 800 (Scheidberg, Sagogn). Also from the period of time between the 6th and the 8th century there are fragments of church décor (wall paintings, mosaic floors, plaster decorations, architectural sculptures). Coherent fresco cycles date back to 800 with the older layers of paintings in Müstair.
The works of the high Middle Ages appear more densely and varied. They reveal influences from the area of the Lake Constance (Reichenau) and from Lombardia (younger layers of paintings in Müstair, the painted ceiling in Zillis, the statue of Charlemagne in Müstair, the glass painting in Pleif).
The parishes which were founded from 1450 until the Reformation period performed and intense church building activity. Numerous churches and chapels give evidence of this.
The populations of the Romansh-speaking area built their houses in stone and wood. The Engadin house has its characteristic shape because of two specific architectural features: the union of the residential building and the stable with barn looking like one single building from outside and the transition from the wooden construction to the massive house made of stone. The big, tripartite porch, which was put at the gable end, opened up into a broad corridor which was aligned in the same direction as the roof ridge and which lead through the whole house. The agricultural crop could be directly driven into the barn through this corridor. On one side of the corridor there was the Stube (traditional wooden living-room), the kitchen and the larder; above these rooms, there were the bedrooms. The roof was covered with long shingles and larch boards. From 1500 onwards the sgrafit (paintings scratched in stucco) became a feature of the typical Engadin house. This technique reached its climax in the second half of the 17th century. The villages in the central part of the Grisons have taken over the Engadin house to a large extent.
In Surselva the residential building and the stable are two separate units. The old farmhouse was a log building with a shingled roof. In many cases the section of the house with the kitchen, which was on the mountain side, was made of stone. The most primitive ground plan shows a rectangle whose gable end looks down to the valley, with a square Stube and behind it the kitchen and the corridor which together covered the same space as the Stube. Above the Stube, there was the bedroom, whereas the kitchen originally reached up to the roof. Later the ground plan was extended with another Stube and a larder which was situated between this second Stube and the kitchen.
These traditional houses can be found in the Grisons still today, but they have been adapted to nowadays’ needs. Next to them, there are buildings which were influenced by a general Central European architecture.
Finally, three contemporary Romansh artists have to be presented which have achieved national and international success.
Gion Caminada, born in 1957, is one of the major representatives of current Suisse architecture and he has a lot of international standing. Since approximately ten years he deals with his home village Vrin in Lumezia Valley where he functions as architect and village planner.
Alois Carigiet, born in Truns 1901 (┼1985). Next to many exhibitions, he also illustrated the children’s book “Uorsin” (A bell for Ursli) which made the Engadin Chalandamarz tradition famous in all the world. The following children’s books like “Florina and the Wild bird” are not as well-known, but just as precious from an artistic point of view.
Not Vital, born in 1948 in Sent, is one of the leading contemporary international sculptors. With motives in snow and ice as well as with animal castings he created a surrealistic, also culturally ambiguous work. Vital works with plaster and bronze, light and dark marble, silver and gold. The theme of his works are the forces of life and nature.