In 15 BC the Celtic people then living in the upper
Vinschgau valley found themselves incorporated into the
Roman Empire following the construction of a commercial and military route crossing the
Alps via what is now known as the
Reschen Pass, the route then being called the "
Via Claudia Augusta". The transalpine route retained its importance through the medieval period, being variously called the "Upper Way" (
Oberer Weg /
Via Superiore) or the "Swabia Road" (
Schwabenweg /
Via di Svevia). After 450, a wave of Christian missionaries arrived from
Chur. By the time of the
Black death (1348), from which most of the population of the time died, most of the Vinschgau Valley, including Graun, had been settled by German speakers; the exception being the side valley of
Müstair, where the
Romansh language survives to this day. German has remained the majority language in Graun since and as of 2011 German was the first language for more than 97% of its population.
Coat-of-arms The escutcheon is
party per fess,
azure on the bottom and
argent on the upper part, separated by a thin
vert stripe. At the center is shown a gray bell tower, with three windows and an azure point, representing the church bell tower still visible in the lake after the construction of the dam. The emblem was granted in 1967. ==Society==