Italian Grisons
Italian and Lombard-speaking parts of Switzerland
Italian Grisons or Italian Grigioni (Italian: Grigionitaliano or Grigioni italiano; German: Italienischbünden; Romansh: Grischun talian; French: Grisons italiens) or sometimes also called Lombard Grisons (Lombard: Grison lombard, lumbard; Romansh: Grischun lumbard), is the region of the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland, in which Italian is the dominant language.
Located in the southernmost part of the canton, it comprises (from west to east) of the region of Moesa, the municipality of Bregaglia in the Region of Maloja and the region of Bernina. It has a population of about 15,000, of which more than 85% speak standard Italian or Lombard. The village and former municipality in Bivio in the district of Albula, located to the north of Bregaglia, once had an Italian-speaking plurality as well. Between 1980 and 1990, however, it was overtaken by German, which is now the majority language of the village.
Geography
The three regions that make up the Italian Grisons are separated by mountains, isolated from the rest of the canton as well as from each other, and from Italy. Because of their remoteness and the lack of economic possibilities, emigration has traditionally been a serious issue, and even today more than half of the people born in the Italian Grisons live and work outside of the region in the predominantly Italian-speaking canton of Ticino.
Religion
Moesa and Bernina are predominantly Roman Catholic, while Bregaglia is chiefly Protestant. Bregaglia is the only municipality in Switzerland with an Italian-speaking Protestant majority.
Education
The dominance of the Italian language in the canton has diminished in recent years, especially to the east in the two regions furthest from Ticino.
The public source identifies “Italian Grisons” as italian and Lombard-speaking parts of Switzerland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Italian, Grisons and Lombard-speaking.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1094561. Authority coordinates are 46.343, 9.591. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “Italian Grisons” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.