Centerpiece of the Graubünden anniversary celebrated
Published: Saturday, Sep 21st 2024, 17:40
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On Saturday afternoon, the open-air play "1524" celebrating the 500th anniversary of Graubünden was premiered in Lantsch/Lenz GR with a large political presence. Guests included Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (SP), politicians from the neighboring cantons and neighboring countries as well as the entire Graubünden government.
The open-air play spanned the decades before and after the merger of three regional leagues in 1524 to form the Free State of the Three Leagues. It showed the power struggles between the autonomous communities, the influential aristocracy and the foreign princes.
Staged on a specially constructed wooden stage in the middle of a high plateau in the Albula region, the aim was to portray the world as a fragile house of cards, wrote the Graubünden cultural institution Origen, which is behind the play.
"We have a lot of experience in ensuring the interaction of space, stage and play," explained Origen director Giovanni Netzer at the beginning of the year. The organization has already used stages open to the landscape for various productions and has also staged open-air plays. Origen's temporary theater tower on the Julier Pass attracted nationwide attention.
Comparison with Jura
In her speech in Lantsch/Lenz, Federal Councillor Baume-Schneider compared the founding of Graubünden with that of the Canton of Jura. Even if the Free State of the Three Leagues is a creation of the late Middle Ages and the founding of the Canton of Jura is a child of more recent times, the act of force is all the more astonishing.
Despite considerable tensions, people pulled together back then and created a dynamic that affected and modernized the entire society. Compared to today's municipal mergers, which are capable of tearing open deep rifts, the stories of Graubünden and the Jura would open up the space of what is conceivable and politically possible. Such foresight and wisdom should also be applied today.
Jon Domenic Parolini (center), President of the Government of Graubünden, put the merger into historical perspective. Graubünden had long been regarded as "organized anarchy at best" by the Confederates of the time. This was because two thirds of the free state was reformed at the time. The foundation was not just a political act. The articles signed in 1524 also contained provisions on religion and paved the way for the reform movement.
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