Swiss by Frank Lavooij

About "Swiss"

by Frank Lavooij

About the artwork

Alpine meadows are famous for their wealth of flowers. In Switzerland, the Engadine goes the extra mile. Its name literally means 'garden of the Inn'. Ramosch, the former centre of Lower Engadin, was for centuries the grain chamber and thus the most important place in the region. Until a hundred years ago, people here were practically completely self-sufficient. Wheat and oats were grown, and up to an altitude of 1900 m also rye and barley. Vegetables were grown on a small scale near houses and huts. But animal husbandry in the last century brought in more than grain and cost less labour. Thus, the former grain fields largely disappeared and were replaced by pastures, hay fields and forest. The small scale of the old terraced landscape has fortunately remained quite intact here, and the use of fertilisers still limited. You can still find old field weeds like wild meadow and rye lily, as well as gentians, orchids, dozens of species of leguminous plants, medicinal plants like Arnica or field sage, and kitchen herbs like thyme and caraway. The biodiversity is exceptionally. high. More than 1,000 different plant species are found in the immediate vicinity of Ramosch. If you include the parts above 1800 m as well, you get up to 1,500 species. This is exceptionally rich even for Switzerland, because even in this country the so-called Magerwiesen have become very rare and only 6 to 8% of the land area is protected.