Author: Maarten Koning

The Morges Tulip Festival

The Morges Fleur du Léman association recently presented the 54th Morges Tulip Festival programme, which starts on Good Friday, 29 March, and ends during the Ascension weekend on 12 May. With 288,000 registered visitors in 2023, the Morges Tulip Festival is Switzerland’s largest flower festival.

 

The main innovation is a new catering concept that highlights regional products. Offering a maximum of regional and local products is the starting point.

This year’s theme is “Countries of the World,” with concerts, Thés dansants, and dance performances will be held in cooperation with the music pavilion in the Parc de l’Indépendance.

The “Wine Taster’s Day” offers wine tastings from the region. While traditional events such as the pottery market on 6 and 7 April or the barrel organ music on 14 April are back, a new arts and crafts market will be offered along the river Morges on Ascension Day, Thursday, 9 May.

(Source and further information: www.tulpenfest.ch)

The Disentis Monastery

The monastery of Disentis in the village of Disentis/Munster (Munster means monastery in the Romansh language, canton Graubünden) was founded around 700.

The Saracens destroyed the monastery in 940. Charlemagne (748-814) and German emperors of the Holy Roman Empire travelled to Italy via Disentis on their way to or from the Lukmanier Pass.

The monastery’s abbot was one of the initiators of the Graue or Obere Bund (the Grey League) in 1395. In 1497, the Grey League became an ally (Zugewandter Ort) of the Eidgenosssenschaft.

The abbot played a decisive role in this process. The following two centuries were dominated by the Reformation in the Freistaat der Drei Bünde (from 1524 to 1803, the canton of Graubünden). Disentis, however, remained Catholic.

The complex was rebuilt in the Baroque style at the end of the 17th century.
The war between France, Russia, and Austria reached Disentis in 1799. The monastery was looted.

However, the new canton did not abolish it after 1815. For this reason, the monastery entered its fourteenth century with the renovation of the Lady Chapel (Maria Kapelle).

(Source and further information: Kloster Disentis)

Impressions

The church

The chapel

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Further Impressions