Discover the fascinating folk tales and myths of the Vals valley, which bring to life mysterious stories from long forgotten times.
In ancient times, the Lampertschalp behind Zerfreila belonged to the people of Vals. Eventually, the best alp in the valley was sold to the people of Ticino for the small sum of a thousand Gulden. A lawyer from Bellenz is said to have drawn up the bill of sale, detailing the terms of the purchase and specifying the borders. It explicitly noted that on one side the Alp extended as far as a certain seven-edged stone, where a stone cross was placed as a mark, but that on the other side it did not go any further than the Horabach.
Two identical copies of this bill of sale were made, and each party received one of them. However, through carelessness or fraud, the people of Vals lost it. This came to the attention of the Ticinese people in the Blenio Valley, who immediately forged their own document, adding that the border “extends as far on one side as it does on the other”.
When the “Plender” (Bleniesi) moved across the Horabach with their cattle, the Valser exercised counter-rights, whereupon the Bleniesi claimed that the purchased alp extended equally far on both sides, as stated in their bill of sale, and that there was no mark on the Horabach (a Plender had thrown it down into the stream). Of course, the matter was soon decided: there was no mark and the Valsers had no bill of sale. The trial ended in favour of the Bleniesi.
However, the villain who had removed the mark soon fell into a crevasse. For a long time he had to ride on a fiery grey horse, out of the valley and into the valley, scaring the shepherds and herds during the night, until he was banished up to the Länta glacier, where he will have to wreak havoc for all eternity.
The devil laboured with a huge boulder to destroy the newly built Campo Chapel in the Vals Valley. An old, cunning, shaky little mother (Baabi) met the devil, and while she stalled him with her women’s tales, she managed to carve a cross into the stone. The devil had to drop the stone because the cross made it heavier and heavier. It fell so hard that it broke into several pieces. The devil was so ashamed that he went back to hell and never returned to Vals.
Hike to Teufelstein: Vals- Camp- St. Niklaus- Tüfelstei- Heidboda- Camp- Vals 1½ hours.
When the inhabitants of Tersnaus wanted to build a chapel in honour of St Catherine, the devil, in a fit of jealousy, climbed the Con della Ritta above Tersnaus with the intention of throwing a huge boulder at the chapel and destroying it. The Prince of Darkness is said to have miraculously missed his target and the boulder fell with a hellish crash into the Glenner stream. In his rage, the devil then threw the stone a good distance up the hill opposite, where it got stuck in the alder bushes. Finally, the devil jumped on top of the stone. This magical stone is now known as Crap della Gneida and is a recognised natural monument of a prehistoric stone cult in the Grisons Oberland.
Hike to the magical stone: Vals – Surcasti (Postbus) – Crap della Gneida 1½ hours.
The Sogn Luregn fortified church is located on a spur 70 metres above the confluence of the Valser Rhine and Glenner rivers. In addition to the two rivers, three other mountain streams meet here in a confined space: the energetic vibrations of a five-river site.
