Disentis

Mustér ([muˈʃteː]^ⓘ, Romansh) or Disentis (German), with its official name Disentis/Mustér is a village and a municipality in the Surselva Region in the Swiss canton of Grisons.

The skiing and summer tourism resort high up in the Rhine valley is the site of one of the oldest Benedictine monasteries in Switzerland. The monastery dates back to 720, its huge current complex dates from 1696 to 1712.

Disentis is first mentioned in 765 as Desertina. In 1127 it was mentioned as monasterium Dissertinensis. The name Disentis is supposed to come from Latin Desertina, used for the deserted valley in late antique times, while the Romansh name Mustér refers to the monastery.

Disentis Abbey, founded in ca. 720, was already in early medieval times the cultural and political center of the later Grisons. Situated on the road to the Lukmanier pass used by the German emperors on their way to Italy, Disentis became a place of international importance in the high Middle Ages and the prince abbot of Disentis was the lord of the Rhine valley. In the later Middle Ages, the farmer communities in the valleys became stronger and the influence of the monastery decreased, but the abbot of Disentis still played an important role in the founding of the Grey League in 1395.

When the Grey League became a formal ally of the Swiss Confederation in 1497, Disentis, at the foot of the Oberalp pass which was the nearest connection to the confederation, was again in a strategically important situation, but later on it was overtaken in importance by the larger Ilanz.

Disentis/Mustér has an area, as of 2006^[update], of 91.1 km² (35.2 sq mi). Of this area, 21.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 22% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (54.3%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Before 2017, the municipality was located in the Disentis sub-district of the Surselva district (which was, until the end of 2000, the Vorderrhein district). It is the largest of the seven municipalities that make up the Disentis sub-district and is the capital. It consists of the center village of Mustér-Vitg and the neighboring villages of Mompé-Tujetsch, Segnes, Acletta, Funs/Clavaniev, Disla, Cavardiras and Mompé-Medel. Except for the two Mompé villages, all the villages contain multiple scattered settlements. The settlement of Brulf near Disentis village was covered in a rockslide in 1689. Until 1963 Disentis/Mustér was known as Disentis/Mustèr.

Disentis lies on the highest step of the Rhine valley, where the roads of the Oberalp pass coming from central and western Switzerland and of the Lukmanier pass coming from the Ticino meet. It has a station where the line from Brig meets the line from Chur and is connected by train and road to the Valais via the Oberalp pass and to Chur following the Rhine valley. The Lukmanier pass road is in summer served by a post bus line.