Porchabella – a beautiful place with a dark past

"Beautiful pig" – that’s not praise for livestock. It’s the name of the glacier in the Kesch-Ducan area, translated from Romansh: Porchabella.

According to legend, the unusual name derives from the blasphemous behaviour of local pig herders and its consequences. But it wasn’t just the herders who experienced disaster on this land: a woman also dubbed ‘Porchabella’ met her doom here, too. Over 30 years ago, a discovery was reported: the only female human remains to have been found in a glacier in Grisons. Kitted out with a comb, spoon, bowl, rosary, brown felt hat and warm, red-violet coat, the woman, aged about 25, set forth through the rough glacier terrain around 1685.

"Porchabella" can be seen for the first time in a special exhibition at the local museum in Bergün.

Further information: https://www.ortsmuseum-berguen.ch/