Grisons

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

or GRAUBÜN- DEN, a canton of Switzerland; the largest and the most thinly peopled; bounded by Tyrol and Lombardy; area, 2,773 square miles; capital, Chur. The whole canton is an assemblage of mountains intersected by narrow valleys. These last form three groups, of which the first and most important lies along the course of the Rhine, and stretches N., occupying nearly the whole of the W. portion of the canton; the second, forming the Engadine, extends N. E. along the course of the Inn; and the third comprises several smaller valleys, whose streams run S., belonging to the basins of the Ticino and the Adige. Pastures and forests occupy a large portion of the canton; cattle and timber are the principal exports. Numerous mineral springs are found within the canton; also the health resorts of Davos, the Upper Engadine, Seewis, etc. Iron, lead, copper, zinc, and Within the Grisons, too, silver occur. are several passes leading to Italy, such as the Splügen, St. Bernardino, Bernina. The country was anciently inhabited by the Rhætii, who are supposed to have been of Etruscan race. It was conquered by the Romans under Augustus, and added by Charlemagne to his empire in 807. During the Middle Ages the Bishop Vol. IV-Cyc-AA of Chur was the most powerful of the numerous nobles who sought to oppress the people, till they in self-defense formed themselves into leagues. One of these leagues, formed in 1424, was called the gray league from the gray homespun worn by the unionists, and hence the German and French names of the creased her reputation, which may be canton-Graubünden and Grisons. In 1471 these separate unions entered into a general federation, which then (1497- 1498) formed an alliance with the Swiss cantons. Pop. about 125,000.