History
Already in the early Middle Ages, Val Sinestra had many small peasant villages, such as Mna (Manas, now known as Vnà), Mna dadaint, Griosch, and Hof Zuort, most of which were inhabited throughout the year. There was a lot of "Passverkehr" (traffic) through the mountain pass of Cuolmen Fenga (Fimberpass), that connected the Engadin with Paznaun, the area right across the water. This caused a strong clerical bond between the two valley communities. It often occurred that the dead of Ischgll were transported to Sent; a grim enterprise in order to ensure a burial at the mother church. The importance of Val Sinestra was diminished tremendously since the Passverkehr was no longer carried out. The village of Mna dadaint has disappeared in the 17th century, and Griosch is now also devoid of all significance. After its flourishing period it remained a small vacation resort, but this also ended in 1999, when it got completely swept away by an avalanche. The former farmer community Zuort is now, thanks to orchestra director Willem Mengelberg, a rural art centre that is very successful, also, of course, because of the inspiring environment. By the way, Mengelberg got to know the place whilst visiting Val Sinestra. Unfortunately, the songs that were sung during the walk to Val Lavèr before taking in the hay, are lost forever. The poetry of rural life has turned into prose. The valleys of Val Sinestra, once said to be a venue for evil spirits, saw the dawning of a new era, that lasts up until this day. Its nature still has that wholesome, invigorating power; a new healing magic for all people. Foundation and building of the Kurhaus. There is little known about the oldest spas in the area. At the beginning of the 19th century, there is supposed to have been a small bathing hut, where people, with primitive means, led mineral water into a wooden basin and put preheated rocks in it to achieve the right temperature. The "visitors" (mostly locals) took the left side of the valley, past the mill of Vnà to get to the mineral source area, for the sources were not very accessible from the direction of Sent. After the opening of the Kurhaus in Tarasp, interest in Val Sinestra's potential was aroused, and initiatives for research and improvement of the accessibility were taken. Hotel owner Curdin Arquint, representative of the hotel union of Vulpera-Tarasp, signed a lease contract with the municipality of Sent, on April 15th 1896, for duration of sixty years. The land required for the building of the Kurhaus and stables was sold for 10 Rp. per square metre. The village of Sent also cooperated strongly, being on the access road to the Kurhaus. In 1898 Arquint died and the contract was taken over by his union partners Töndury, Pinösch & Co. in Vulpera. The first plans were to build on a meadow near Tschern. The land was bought and and architect called Scherrer researched possibilities on how to get the mineral water to this location. He came to the conclusion that this was technically and financially impossible. So they decided to start building closer to the sources. On July the third 1904 the small hotel was opened. It was so successful, also because of the flourishing spa culture, that they decided to build a bigger hotel with 120 beds, according to a draft of architect Koller from St. Moritz. A true technical highlight was the placing of the required scaffolding on the steep and protruding rocks. A specialist was hired for this complicated and dangerous task, the famous bridge builder 'Baumeister Richard Coray aus trin, ein Spross aus altem bündnerischem Handwerkersgeschlecht.' In 1912 the new Kurhaus was opened. The first head of it was Nicolaus Tarmutzer-Frascati, the first Kurarzt (health program doctor) was Dr. Severino Croce, who was an assistant-doctor at the Royal Charité in Berlin. When the First World War started, the Kurhaus was cut off from the outside world, thus stopping the flow of high society guests from visiting. But also after the War ended in 1918 the success of its glory days was never met again, in spite of the much appraised healing power of the water. This can of course be attributed to the crisis of the thirties and the Second World War. 
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