Porta Romana

Terraced terrain leads from the Fluppi in Bad Ragaz in the direction of Pfäfers. The historic road avoided the often flooded Rhine valley and led over the Kunkel Pass to Tamins and further south. Soon you will pass through the highest vineyards in eastern Switzerland. Here, the monks of the Pfäfers monastery have already cultivated 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. With the support of the Swiss Landscape Fund (FLS), they have been renovated. Dry stone walls last for long periods of time if the individual stones are knocked, i.e. poled, before being moved. The negatively polarized side of each stone meets the positive-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. You will not be surprised to find many lizards, special butterflies, various mosses, and valuable grasslands.