Exotic Plants in the Mountain Village – Tobacco Cultivation in Viano

Potatoes? Today, these vegetables are processed into cantonal specialities of Graubünden, such as Maluns. However, the plant has not been known in Graubünden for that long; the potato was first planted at Marschlins Castle near Landquart in 1717. Other previously exotic plants were also experimented with there: maize, mulberry trees for silkworm breeding – and tobacco.

However, tobacco was not actually cultivated in Graubünden until later, in the Val Poschiavo. From the first half of the 19th century onwards, the nightshade plant was cultivated on a large scale, and by around 1860, up to 80 tonnes of tobacco were produced annually in the southern Graubünden valley.

The care and cultivation of the plants, as well as the harvesting and processing of the tobacco, required up to 100 workers, most of whom were women. Moreover, tobacco was by no means only grown on the valley floor. This is evidenced, for instance, by a photograph from the archive of the association iSTORIA Poschiavo: the picture, taken around 1933, shows tobacco cultivation high above the valley village of Brusio, in the mountain village of Viano. As a side note, the girl in the photograph is Ilda Monigatti. She grew up in Viano – and therefore with tobacco cultivation.