If you travel to Disentis on the Rhaetian Railway, you climb through the Surselva region and, as you round the final bend, the valley opens out before you. At that moment, what astonishing sight meets your eyes? Towering high above the village, like a great “white ark” (as a local poet once described it), stands the Baroque monastery of Disentis with its Abbey Church of St Martin!
Alternatively, you might approach from the south, having driven through the Blenio Valley and over the Lukmanier Pass. If you stop for a moment below the village of Curaglia, a distant gleam will catch your eye. Again – the “white ark” of Disentis Abbey!
Or perhaps you will cross the Oberalp Pass by road or rail from Andermatt in Canton Uri. As you sweep round the wide curve below the hamlet of Mompé-Tujetsch, what do you see, suddenly outlined against the sky above Disentis village? Again, our “white ark”, dominating the valley below!
You may even be sitting on the left-hand side of an aeroplane travelling from Zurich to Rome, looking down from a height of 10,000 metres above sea level. What is that shining up at you – unmistakeable among the vivid green Alpine meadows? The “white ark” of the Benedictines of Disentis! Something your pilot will be pleased to confirm.
