Vaz/Obervaz - History

History

Obervaz was definitely settled by the time of the Carolingians (750-910). The inventory of the belongings of the Frankish crown in Raetia made in 831 mentions Lain, Muldain and Zorten along with their churches. Around 840 the entire region was mentioned as villa Vazzes. Excavations near the old parish church of St. Donat in Zorten discovered Roman finds, among others.

The municipality of Vaz/Obervaz was a part of the possessions of the Free Lords of Vaz. This important dynastic family definitely existed between 1135 and 1338, as can be proven with documents. Certainly, the Free Lords of Vaz were one of the most powerful aristocratic families of the Alps. From one document (from 1253) it can be inferred that they owned land in the distant German Linzgau. The Vazes received tithes from a total of 28 communities in the surroundings of Salem.

In Graubünden the Free Lords of Vaz possessed, besides their main seat, der Löwenburg (Lion Castle) in Nivagl, and later Castle Belfort, rights to 25 castles, including Neu-Aspermont in Herrschaft, Jörgenberg in Oberland, Ortstein at the entrance to the Domleschgs valley, and even one in Splügen. The two most important representatives of the dynasty were Walter IV and Donat of Vaz. Donat left two daughters, Kunigunde, who married Friedrich von Toggenburg, and Ursula, who married Rudolph von Werdenberg Sargans after the death of Donat. The inheritance of the last Free Lord was thus split between the two noble houses.

Vaz/Obervaz paid to become an independent municipality in 1456. The bishops of Chur, Schams and Obervaz bought the inheritance of Ursula from an impoverished Count Werdenberg Sargans for 3600 Gulden in 1456. Obervaz paid about 600 Gulden for its area, or about 11,000 Franks.

During the next centuries, the municipality became successively more democratic and free, only during the Thirty Years War was it shortly lead back to a condition of insecure rights, the results of which included material loss, debt, and economic ruin. The time after the war was shaped by problems of authority between political, religious and native justice, over arguments about forest usage and municipal borders. Connected to these arguments were others between the Vazers, the Churwalders, and the Parparners about the forest usage rights on Mount Stätz. When Vazers killed 12 sheep in 1487, those opposed gained great control. The area was not leased for settlement until 1788.

The biggest emergency came during the Thirty Years War. The plague was brought into town by imperial troops. It effects large parts of Graubünden, and took the majority of the population in many valley settlements. In this way the Walser settlement of Schall behind Mount Piz Danis was became completely desolate, and has since only been recently settled.

Perhaps the first Jenische obtained their citizenship in the 18th century through purchase. At that time in other towns, they had, in the best case, only the status of Lower Class, or the Tolerated. Because of the pre-existing rights, during the conversion of the Swiss federal Laws concerning Homelessness in the middle of the 19th century many homeless Jenische with family connections to the Obervaz Jenische were assigned Obervaz citizenship by the federal authorities.