I have been once to the female Benedictine convent in Müstair, situated in a small village in a valley of the Canton of the Grisons. It was found by the bishop of Chur at the behest of Charlemagne in the 9th century and it’s a beautiful example of the Christian monastic renovation of that period. It has two courts and it’s closed by walls. The Carolingian church, in part reconstructed in Gothic and Baroque styles, has a high tower, that was the house of the abbess. Inside were discovered, with the removal of the Gothic ceiling and of the whithewash, the greatest complex of frescoes, Carolingian and Romanesque, in Switzerland (with scenes from the Old and the New Testament painted with ochre, red, and brown colours),a statue of Charlemagne, a nice relief, an interesting altar, a women's gallery and three arcaded apsis. Near the church are the chapels of St. Ulrich and Nicolas, with Carolingian relieves, and of Holy Cross. There are also the rooms of the convent with original furniture, frescos and stucco (like in the residence of the bishop Norbert).

I was a little bit disappointed by the conventual buildings, but I liked very much the frescos inside. It justifies the inscription because it contains the most important Swiss frescos, that are also between the most important Carolingian frescos. The buildings are in a very good state of conservation and also the frescos. However there are some parts of the Carolingian frescos in the church that aren't conservated well because of their antiquity or because the fact that they are covered by the Romanesque frescos and some aren't there because they are in the convent museum or in the Regional Museum in Zürich. I think that the frescos which are in Swiss museums can be put in place again. If you consider the 9th century buildings, which constitue the reason why the convent is on the WHL, you can't say that the convent as a whole has much authenticity, because only the church and not much more is of this period. But if you consider all the Middle Ages, the convent has a very high authenticity. The convent is worth to be visited if you are in the Canton of Grisons, but is not easy to reach it. Müstair is on the road 28 and there are some roads going there from Sankt Moritz, Davos or Zernez but also from Italy (from Bormio in the Valtellina Valley and Livigno or from Malles Venosta or Sluderno in the Venosta Valley) and from Austria (from Nauders). The parking is in front of the convent. The entrance in the church is free, even if when you see the ticket office you can think that the tickets are for the church and buy them for iy, while they are for the convent (where you enter from a door, situated in the church, of which you must ring the bell).

Photo: Müstair - Benedictin Convent of Saint John the Baptist