Surselva Region


Surselva Region is one of the eleven administrative districts in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2017 as part of a reorganization of the canton.
Surselva Region has an area of, with a population of as of..
It corresponds exactly to its predecessor, Surselva District, but the former subdistricts of Disentis, Ilanz, Lumnezia/Lugnez, Ruis and Safien have been abandoned.
Surselva is the name of the valley of the Anterior Rhine in the local dialect of Romansh. The eponymous forest is that of the Flims rockslide; the region "below the forest" is Sutselva, where the Sutsilvan dialect used to be spoken.

Geography

The Surselva encompasses the valley of the Vorderrhein/Rein Anteriur and all its side valleys, from the source near the Oberalp Pass all the way down towards Reichenau. The region ends before that confluence at the huge forest on the giant debris of Flims Rockslide that is responsible for the name of the region: The debris area lack of water and soil and were ever left as a big forest as it was useless for farming. This forest is the border for "Sur-silva".
The Surselva is one of the few areas in Switzerland that is mainly Romansh-speaking. There are a few German-speaking communities in the Surselva, e.g. Disentis/Mustér, with its Benedictine monastery, which dates back to 720, Obersaxen and Vals, which were founded in the thirteenth century by the Walser.
A long-distance hike is signposted to follow the full length of the main valley of the Anterior Rhine.

Municipalities

Surselva Region had 17 municipalities at the time of its formation. On 1 January 2018 the former municipalities of Andiast and Waltensburg/Vuorz merged into the municipality of Breil/Brigels, for a total of 15 municipalities.

Linguistic demography

is the predominant language in the region, most of which speak the Sursilvan dialect. There is a large German-speaking minority in Surselva, notably the Walser settlements of Obersaxen and Vals. However, the percentage of Romansh-speakers is on the decline. Traditional Romansh-speaking cities such as Ilanz are losing ground to German.