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Switzerland's largest canton, in the southeast corner of the country, is officially trilingual, known as Graubunden in German ( www.graubuenden.ch ), Grigioni in Italian and Grischun in Romansh, the last of these a direct descendant of Latin which has survived locked away in the mountains since the Roman legions departed 1500 years ago and is now first language of some 70,000 people. (You may also come across the canton's French name of Grisons , though there are no French-speaking communities.) The name Graubunden, which translates as "The Grey Leagues", stems from a 1471 pact of commoners which overthrew the rule of the region's bishop-princes. Since then, Bundners have been free, and they relish the fact more than most other Swiss: it took until 1803 for them to join the Confederation, and even today they vote unequivocally against joining the EU. The folded landscape of deep, isolated valleys and thick pine forests makes this the wildest and loneliest part of the country, despite the presence of renowned mountain resorts such as St Moritz and Davos . The cantonal capital Chur is on a fast train link from Zurich, but all other trains in Graubunden are run by the local Rhatische Bahn (ER, IR & SP free; www.rhb.ch ).
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