CAVAGLIA (1692MT): The Glacier Garden
A natural park with sculptures of nature

The Glacier Garden is a natural park located in Cavaglia, in Valposchiavo, Switzerland. Here you can admire the "giant's pots", real sculptures of nature. These cylindrical holes of considerable size, dug into the rock by the millennia-old erosive action of gravel and sand pushed by the water coming from the Palù Glacier. The Glacier Garden Association, with the help of volunteers, has freed the pots from rocks and debris to make them visible to visitors. Popular imagination, in attributing a legendary origin to them, has called them "giant's pots". Still today the exact number of this natural phenomenon is not known, an estimate seems to indicate that Cavaglia is home to the most important and complex system of erosive holes in the Alpine arc.

FOR THE LITTLE ONES GRUMMO is a good giant who lives in the Glacier Garden of Cavaglia, where he guards the secret of his gigantic strength. An illustrated booklet, designed for children from 5 to 12 years old, tells the story of Grummo and how he became a giant. The information panels of the Glacier Garden are equipped with matrices, which must be reported back to the booklet, to finally reveal the secret of Grummo's gigantic strength. The booklet "The giant Grummo" is available from the Poschiavo tourist office or can be downloaded from the website.

ALP GRUM (2091mt.) THE HYDROELECTRIC SECTOR IN VALPOSCHIAVO

For over a hundred years the waters of the Valposchiavo natural basin have enriched this alpine region. Hydroelectric power has made a fundamental contribution to the economic development of the Valley. With the construction in 1904 of the Campocologno power plant, at the time the largest high-pressure hydroelectric power plant in Europe, the history of the hydroelectric company began. Born with the name of Forze Motrici Brusio AG, in 2000, after a merger, it became Retia Energie AG and since 2010 Repower AG.

Only the availability of electricity allowed the construction of the Bernina line, which considering the great steepness was conceived from the outset as an electric railway. The dams of Lago Bianco and the power plants located at different altitudes (Palü, Cavaglia, Robbia, Campocologno) still bear witness to electricity production. Lago Bianco, the well-known reservoir close to the Bernina watershed, is the result of the union of the Scala and Arlas dams built in 1904. Lago Bianco can hold 18 million cubic meters of water and constitutes the remarkable energy source of the underlying Palù power plant. It is a seasonal water storage basin to be used in times of peak demand, given that until now the demand for energy has always proven to be greater in winter. Lago Bianco can be considered a typical seasonal basin. A pumping system allows water from Lago di Palü, located 300 meters further downstream, to be brought to Lago Bianco so as to have a constant level in the lake.

The Palù power plant, which came into operation in 1927, is the highest altitude power plant in the Valposchiavo chain of plants. It is equipped with a vertical Pelton turbine and a second turbine located over 30 meters lower and connected to each other by a single pin. When the water from Lago Bianco reaches the power plant through a special pipe, it has a pressure of 28 bar. At full capacity 4,500 liters per second arrive and the water reaches the turbines at a speed of about 150 kilometers per hour. The building was designed by Nicolaus Hartmann jr. Thanks to its prominent position it resembles a medieval tower. The position, raised above the current lake level, is due to the expansion projects of the basin that were never carried out.

The Cavaglia power plant, designed by Nicolaus Hartmann jr. in the same period as the Palü plant (1927), is the second power plant located along the drop between Lago Bianco and the Robbia power plant. The plant, with an installed capacity of 7 MW and an annual production of around 19 GWh, still operates with the first Pelton turbine installed in 1927. The Robbia power plant, which came into operation in 1910, with a drop of over 600 meters, was, at the time, among the largest storage power plants and for this reason it was at the center of interest of specialists in the sector. It gave the go-ahead to the use of the water power of the upper jump of Valposchiavo and underwent several extensions in 1921 and in the years between 1940 and 1945.

BERNINA OSPIZIO (2253MT); the Bernina Pass, a linguistic divide

In addition to being a natural border, the watershed also marks a linguistic and cultural frontier. In fact, Romansh is spoken in Engadina, while Italian is spoken in the Poschiavo Valley. Romansh is a language with an ancient tradition that, together with Dolomite Ladin and Friulian, constitutes the Rhaeto-Romance linguistic group formed by Romance languages. Since 1938 it has been the fourth language of the Swiss Confederation alongside German, French and Italian. The origins of Romansh can be traced back to the Roman conquest of the central alpine region. From the 8th century onwards, the region came under Germanic influence and German became the official language, while Romansh remained tied to the peasant world. Over time, Romansh began to be spoken by an increasingly smaller number of people. In 1982 a unified language was created for all the Romansh people of Grisons: Rumantisch Grischun, which is also used as the official administrative language.

Bernina Diavolezza (2082mt) :Overcoming a difference in altitude of about 1,000 meters, the cable car (open all year round) takes you in about 10 minutes to the Diavolezza hotel-refuge at 2,973 meters. Its terrace overlooking the majestic Bernina group offers one of the most beautiful panoramas in the Alps.

Bernina Lagalb (2099mt): A cable car (open only in winter) takes you to near the Piz Lagalb at 2,959 meters. Here in 1983 Fred Zinnermann shot the film "Five Days One Summer" with Sean Connery.

MORTERATSCH (1896 Mt)

The Morteratsch Glacier is the largest in the Canton of Grisons, with its 16 square kilometers that descend in about 7 km to an altitude of 2010 m, one of the lowest in the entire Alpine arc. The imposing glacial tongue originates from the reservoir basin located between Piz Bernina and Piz Zupò. Halfway along its route, the tongue encounters a rocky constriction, causing it to break up into a cascade of crevasses and seracs that the mountaineers have called the Labyrinth.

The Legend of Morteratsch: The legend tells the sad story of Aratsch and his beloved Annette: the young shepherd had asked a rich farmer for his daughter's hand in marriage, receiving only mockery and derision in return. He then decided to leave for distant lands, enlisting as a soldier. Once he became an officer, he returned home to discover that his beloved had died of a broken heart. Desperate, he took his own life. For a long time, in the valley, Annette's spirit could be heard crying around poor Aratsch: "Mort Aratsch! Mort Aratsch!". A shepherd who was on the alp, annoyed by the long wailing, cursed the poor soul. From that moment on, the glacier began to advance and soon covered the alp, the alp, and the entire valley, the glacier took the name of Morteratsch in memory of Annette.

For the little ones: the Mountain sporit Sabi: His task is to guard all the secrets of the ancient Bernina glaciers, a task he performs perfectly, but Sabi has a dream! A series of riddles that can be found on the information totems located along the glacier walk will help the little ones to discover Sabi's great dream and to learn all about the glacier's retreat and its mysterious past life. The booklet "Sabi's Big Dream" can be found at the start of the Morteratsch glacier trail or at the tourist offices in Pontresina and Poschiavo.

PONTRESINA (1744MT): The capital of mounntaineering

Pontresina does not fear comparison with St. Moritz, here there is no display of worldliness but a particular elegance in Belle Epoque style. Originally, this village was made up of the four hamlets of Laret, San Spieret, Giarsun and Carlinof. Today, the concentration of hotels and shops along the Via Maistra gives it the appearance of a village that develops along the main road. The resort, already known in the Middle Ages thanks to its position at the foot of the Bernina Pass, is nestled on a sunny terrace, sheltered from the wind, lapped by the water of the Flaz torrent and surrounded by forests of larch and Swiss pine. It developed touristically in the mid-19th century thanks to Klara Chris, who had the brilliant idea of opening an inn with only three beds to accommodate English mountaineers who came to the valley to try climbing the surrounding untouched peaks.