From the old free state to the young canton
Napoleon handing over the mediation document. As the Grisons refused to grant more independence to their foreign possessions and ignored two of Napoleon’s ultimata, it led to a break. The French occupied the Grisons and integrated it into the Helvetian Republic. The mediation document of 1803 marks the entry of the canton Grisons into the Swiss Confederation.Image: Raetian Museum
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Page one of the executive document of the 1803 mediation constitution. The mediation document meant that the Grisons were now part of the Swiss Confederation, which in 1848 eventually became the Switzerland of today (in German).Image: State archive, Graubünden, StAGR II/3a
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Jakob Ulrich Sprecher von Bernegg (1765‒1841) was a member of the «Patriotic Party» which supported the entry of Grisons into Switzerland and was part of their delegation in Paris. He went on to become the first president of the new canton’s upper chamber.Image: Raetian Museum
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The residence of the family von Salis-Soglio was built in 1752. After the founding of the canton in 1803, the «New Building» has been the seat of the cantonal government since.Image: Raetian Museum
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