Zernez is a village and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

in the

Engiadina Bassa/Val Müstair Region Engiadina Bassa/Val Müstair Region is one of the eleven administrative districts in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It had an area of and a population of (as of ).. It was created on 1 January 2017 as part of a reorganization of ...

in the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

of Graubünden. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of

Lavin Lavin is a former municipality in the district of Inn in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Lavin and Susch merged into the municipality of Zernez. History Lavin is first mentioned in the 12th ce ...

and

Susch Susch (formally Süs) is a village and former municipality in the district of Inn in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Lavin and Susch merged into the municipality of Zernez.Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, the Lower Engadine and towards

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, over the

Fuorn Pass Fuorn Pass or Ofen Pass ( Romansh: ''Pass dal Fuorn'', german: Ofenpass, it, Passo del Forno) (el. 2149 m.) is a high alpine mountain pass in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The name is based on the ovens that were used in ironwork ...

into the Val Mustair and over the

Flüela Pass The Flüela Pass (german: Flüelapass, rm, Pass dal Flüela, elevation ) is a high mountain pass of the Swiss Alps in Graubünden. Traditionally considered the boundary between the Albula and Silvretta Alps, the pass crosses the watershed / dra ...

. Zernez is the center for visitors of the

Swiss National Park The Swiss National Park ( rm, Parc Naziunal Svizzer; german: Schweizerischer Nationalpark; it, Parco Nazionale Svizzero; french: Parc National Suisse) is located in the Western Rhaetian Alps, in eastern Switzerland. It is within the canton ...

( Romansh: Parc Naziunal).

History

Zernez is first mentioned in 1131 as ''Gumpo de Ernece''. In 1161-64 it was mentioned as ''Zarnetz'' though both references are found in a copy of the document from 1365.

Geography and climate

Topography

After the 2015 merger Zernez had an area of . Before the merger Zernez had an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 7.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 35.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 55.9% is unproductive land. Over the past two decades (1979/85-2004/09) the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by .Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Regional portraits
accessed 2 May 2016 Until 2017 the municipality was located in the Sur Tasna sub-district of the Inn district, after 2017 it was part of the Engiadina Bassa/Val Müstair Region. It is located along the

Ofen Pass Fuorn Pass or Ofen Pass ( Romansh: ''Pass dal Fuorn'', german: Ofenpass, it, Passo del Forno) (el. 2149 m.) is a high alpine mountain pass in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The name is based on the ovens that were used in ironworks ...

road into the

Engadin The Engadin or Engadine ( rm, ;This is the name in the two Romansh idioms that are spoken in the Engadin, Vallader and Puter, as well as in Sursilvan and Rumantsch Grischun. In Surmiran, the name is ''Nagiadegna'', and in Sutsilvan, it i ...

e. It consists of the village of Zernez and the section of Brail.

Lai da Ova Spin Lai da Ova Spin is a compensation reservoir on the Spöl river at Zernez, Grisons, Switzerland. Its volume is 7.4 mio m³ and surface area . The arch dam Ova Spin was completed in 1968 and has a height of 73 m. See also *List of lakes of Switze ...

is a compensation reservoir on the river

Spöl The Spöl or Aqua Granda is an Italian and Swiss river and is a tributary of the Inn. The source of the river is near Corno di Campo in the Province of Sondrio in Italy. It flows northeast past Livigno and into Lago di Livigno. It exits the lak ...

. It is located in the upper areas of the Lower Engadine valley (Romansh: Engiadina Bassa). It is located at an elevation of and is connected to the railway network of the

Rhätische Bahn The Rhaetian Railway (german: Rhätische Bahn; it, Ferrovia retica; rm, Viafier retica), abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the Rh ...

. In Zernez, the stream

empties into the

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

(Romansh: En).

Climate

Zernez has an average of 102.7 days of rain per year and on average receives of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hai ...

. The wettest month is August during which time Zernez receives an average of of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 11.4 days. The driest month of the year is February with an average of of precipitation over 11.4 days., the weather station elevation is 1471 meters above sea level.

Demographics

Population

Zernez has a population () of . , 18.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 3 years (2010-2013) the population has changed at a rate of 1.14%. The

birth rate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

in the municipality, in 2013, was 8.7 while the

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...

was 6.9 per thousand residents. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 59.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.9%. In 2013 there were 508 private households in Zernez. Of the 282 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 29.4% were single family homes and 38.3% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 43.6% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 10.6% were built between 1991 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2012 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 5.22. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 4.03%. The historical population is given in the following table:

Historic Population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1100 height:500 PlotArea = height:350 left:100 bottom:90 right:100 Legend = columns:3 left:220 top:70 columnwidth:160 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 Colors= id:ZE value:yellowgreen legend:Zernez id:LA value:green legend:Lavin id:SU value:blue legend:Susch PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:30 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from: 0 till:603 text:"603" color:ZE bar:1860 from: 0 till:603 text:"603" color:ZE bar:1870 from: 0 till:565 text:"565" color:ZE bar:1880 from: 0 till:528 text:"528" color:ZE bar:1888 from: 0 till:555 text:"555" color:ZE bar:1900 from: 0 till:596 text:"596" color:ZE bar:1910 from: 0 till:1075 text:"1075" color:ZE bar:1920 from: 0 till:760 text:"760" color:ZE bar:1930 from: 0 till:728 text:"728" color:ZE bar:1941 from: 0 till:738 text:"738" color:ZE bar:1950 from: 0 till:739 text:"739" color:ZE bar:1960 from: 0 till:712 text:"712" color:ZE bar:1970 from: 0 till:906 text:"906" color:ZE bar:1980 from: 0 till:920 text:"920" color:ZE bar:1990 from: 0 till:869 text:"869" color:ZE bar:2000 from: 0 till:959 text:"959" color:ZE bar:1850 from: 603 till:970 text:"367" color:LA bar:1860 from: 603 till:990 text:"387" color:LA bar:1870 from: 565 till:791 text:"226" color:LA bar:1880 from: 528 till:793 text:"265" color:LA bar:1888 from: 555 till:800 text:"245" color:LA bar:1900 from: 596 till:845 text:"249" color:LA bar:1910 from: 1075 till:1369 text:"294" color:LA bar:1920 from: 760 till:1012 text:"252" color:LA bar:1930 from: 728 till:944 text:"216" color:LA bar:1941 from: 738 till:998 text:"260" color:LA bar:1950 from: 739 till:981 text:"242" color:LA bar:1960 from: 712 till:908 text:"196" color:LA bar:1970 from: 906 till:1061 text:"155" color:LA bar:1980 from: 920 till:1102 text:"182" color:LA bar:1990 from: 869 till:1053 text:"184" color:LA bar:2000 from: 959 till:1133 text:"174" color:LA bar:1850 from: 970 till:1371 text:"401" color:SU bar:1860 from: 990 till:1329 text:"339" color:SU bar:1870 from: 791 till:1159 text:"368" color:SU bar:1880 from: 793 till:1179 text:"386" color:SU bar:1888 from: 800 till:1164 text:"364" color:SU bar:1900 from: 845 till:1194 text:"349" color:SU bar:1910 from: 1369 till:1778 text:"409" color:SU bar:1920 from: 1012 till:1304 text:"292" color:SU bar:1930 from: 944 till:1201 text:"257" color:SU bar:1941 from: 998 till:1279 text:"281" color:SU bar:1950 from: 981 till:1264 text:"283" color:SU bar:1960 from: 908 till:1124 text:"216" color:SU bar:1970 from: 1061 till:1282 text:"221" color:SU bar:1980 from: 1102 till:1319 text:"217" color:SU bar:1990 from: 1053 till:1256 text:"203" color:SU bar:2000 from: 1133 till:1332 text:"199" color:SU note: Population increase in 1910 due to railway construction

Languages

Most of the population () speaks (Rhaeto-)Romansh (61.1%), with German being second most common (31.3%) and Italian being third ( 4.4%). The Romansh speaking majority speak the

Vallader Vallader (Vallader, Sursilvan, Puter, Surmiran, and Rumantsch Grischun: ''vallader'' ; Sutsilvan: ') is a variety of the Romansh language spoken in the Lower Engadine valley (''Engiadina Bassa'') of southeast Switzerland, between Martina ...

dialect. In 1880 there were 84% of the population spoke Romansh as their first language, in 1900 it was 79% and in 1941 it was 78%. In 1990 about 81% understood Romansh and in 2000 it was 80%.

Education

In Zernez about 72.5% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

or additional higher education (either university or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied ar ...

'').

Economy

, there were a total of 653 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 63 people worked in 18 businesses in the primary economic sector. The

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructio ...

employed 208 workers in 27 separate businesses. Finally, the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector ( raw materials) and the secon ...

provided 382 jobs in 88 businesses. In 2013 a total of 5.2% of the population received social assistance.

Criminality

In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the

Swiss Criminal Code The Swiss Criminal Code (SR/RS 311, german: Strafgesetzbuch (StGB), french: Code pénal suisse (CP), it, Codice penale svizzero (CP), rm, Cudesch penal svizzer) is a portion of the third part (SR