Porta Romana

Terraced terrain leads from the Fluppi in Bad Ragaz in the direction of Pfäfers. The historic road has avoided the often flooded Rhine Valley and has led over the Kunkelspass to Tamins and further south. Soon you will pass through the highest vineyards in eastern Switzerland. Here the monks of the monastery Pfäfers have already grown vines up to 720 m above sea level. The area gets its name from the former Roman barrier, the Porta Romana, which stood here on the flank. Impressive dry stone walls up to six metres high line the old trade route. They have been renovated with the support of the Swiss Landscape Fund FLS. Dry stone walls survive long periods of time if the individual stones are knocked before being moved, i.e. polarized. The negatively polarized side of each stone bumps into the plus-polarized side of the next. In this way, the wall is stable. More than two hundred different plant species, including endangered and rare ones, have found a habitat here, in the somewhat forgotten, near-natural Garden of Eden, which they share with many animals. It will hardly surprise you to find many lizards, special butterflies, various mosses, and valuable lean meadows.