Alvaschein - St. Peter Mistail

St. Peter Mistail is the church of a former nunnery, located very secluded near the entrance to the "Schinschlucht", a 9kms long gorge. The building is (one of only two) Carolingian "three apses"-churches in Switzerland (Muestair is the second). It is known since 823, when it was mentioned in a letter to Louis the Pious.

The nunnery existed here upto 1154. the church is owned by the parish of Alvaschein since the 14th century. The buildings of the convent got lost over the centuries.

Archeologists proved in the 1960s/1970s, that the existing church was erected on the foundations of an even older one around 800. Even some Carolingian frescoes were found. That means it is about as old as the buildings in Muestair.

Over centuries the parish used the church for funerals. A glimpse rhrogh the gate of the ossuary. The sentence reads:

"Was Ihr seid / das waren wir - Was wir sind / das werdet ihr."

Translates to

"What you are now, we once were / what we are now, you shall be"

and can be seen on Roman tombs

"Quod sumus, hoc eritis. Fuimos quandoque, quod estis".