-Rhein, the Mittel-Rhein, and the
Hinter-Rhein.

At Disentis was one of the most ancient Benedictine monasteries of the
German Alps. It was founded in 614, and stood high upon the hillside of
Mount Vakaraka, at the confluence of two of the branches of the Rhine.
Its abbots had great political influence and were princes of the Empire.
They were the founders of the "Gray Brotherhood," and were the first
magistrates of the region.

The abbey of Disentis was, in 1799, captured and set on fire by the
French, but later on it was reestablished, only to suffer again from
fire in 1846, though it was again rebuilt in more modest style.

St. Trons was the former seat of the Parliament of Grisons. Its chief
ecclesiastical monument is a memorial chapel dedicated to St. Anne.

On its porch one may read the following inscription:

"_In libertatem vocati estis
Ubi spiritus domini, ibi libertas
In te speraverunt patres
Speraverunt et liberasti oes._"

Coire was the ancient Curia Rhaetiorum. It is the capital of the Canton
of Grisons, and was the seat of a bishop as early as 562. The Emperor
Constantine made the town his winter quarters in the fourth century.

The church of St. Martin, to-day belonging to the Reformed Church, is an
unconvincing and in no way remarkable monument, but in what is known as
the Episcopal Court, behind great walls, tower-flanked and with heavily
barred gateways, one comes upon evidences of the ecclesiastical
importance of the town in other days.

The walls of the ancient "ecclesiastical city" enclose a plat nearly
triangular in form. On one side are the canons' residences and other
domestic establishments, and on the other the cathedral and the
bishop's palace.

In the episcopal palace are a number of fine portraits, which are more a
record of manners and customs in dress than they are of churchly
history.

The small cathedral and all the other edifices date from an
eighth-century foundation, and are in the manifest Romanesque style of a
very early period.

Within the cathedral are a number of funeral monuments of not much
artistic worth and a series of paintings by Holbein and Duerer. As an art
centre Coire would appear to rank higher than it does as a city of
architectural treasures, for it was also the birthplace of Angelica
Kauffmann, who was born here in 1741.

Ragatz is more famous as a "watering-place"--for the baths of Pfeffers
are truly celebrated--than as a treasure-ho