Schams

The Schams (

Graubünden

.

Geography

Schams

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Schams in Graubünden

The Schams is the central of the three valleys along the

Posterior Rhine flows through the valley in a predominantly south-to-north direction and falls from a height of 1094 m at the outflow of Rofla Gorge, where the Val Ferrera

flows in from the right, to 883 m at the Raniabrücke.

The Schams valley is bordered on both sides by mountain ranges of around 3000 m high. The highest peaks on the Western side are the Pizzas d'Anarosa (3000 m), the Bruschghorn (3056 m) and the prominent Piz Beverin (2998 m). On the eastern side, the highest peak is Piz Curvér (2972 m) on the border with Oberhalbstein.

The larger settlements are close to the river. The left slope, locally known as the

Alpine meadows

. On the right side slope, where the forests rech down to the valley floor, there are no settlements other than Maiensässes.

Municipalities

Sutsilvan

, about the beautiful valley of Val Schons

In the valley of the Rhine wind find on the right bank, the larger villages

Mathon

and Wergenstein.

There are a total of eight municipalities in Schams sub-district. They include, in addition to those mentioned above, Ferrera in the Val Ferrera, and Rongellen at the northern end of the Viamala gorge.

The Jurisdiction of Schams, a member of the

Sutsilvan dialect of Romansh

was almost the only language spoken in the valley. The situation changed dramatically in the late 20th century, especially in accessible places, such as Zillis and Andeer and the Val Ferrera. There, the proportion of predominantly German-speaking people was already above 80% in the 2000 census. On the Schamserberg, Romansh still had a narrow majority.