Glatschastè Academy of Witchery

**Glatschastè Academy of Witchery** (Romansh: *Scoula di Striuneria Glatschastè*; German: *Glatschastè Akademie für Hexerei*) was the Swiss wizarding school, located high in the Romansh Alps. Originally founded in 1050 as a school for the Romansh wizarding community of the Alps, the school began accepting German-speaking students during the 17th century as German-speaking witches and wizards fled witch hunts in Germany for friendlier communities in the Alps. By the mid 17th century, the majority of the school's population was German-speaking.

In the mid 19th century, the school accepted students from the Romansh communities in Switzerland and Italy and the German-speaking communities of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Germany, though students from outside of Bavaria and Württemberg were uncommon. Students from further north in Germany, especially Prussia, tended to attend Durmstrang Institute. Students from the non-German-speaking areas of the Austrian Empire were not admitted to Glatschastè. Italian-speaking students from Ticino could be accepted with special permission from the Headmaster.

## Name

The name Glatschastè comes from the Putèr Romansh "*Glatsch Chastè*" meaning "Ice Castle".

## History

Founded in the year 1050 by a council of Romansh community leaders from the Engiadina Valley, the Rain Anteriur, and Cuira, led by Philippu Carvertscha, Glatschastè remained a small local school for centuries, serving only the Romansh communities of the Alps. For most of its history, the school did not involve itself in relationships or competitions with other European wizarding schools and remained relatively unknown outside of the Romansh community in what would become Switzerland.

When designing the trial table, Philippu Carvertscha chose the ibex or capricorn, ubiquitous in the mountains around the school, as the animal emblem of Glatschastè. In later centuries, the Eurasian lynx instead would become a more common symbol for the school, in honor of Philippu's family familiar.

In 1583, five wizarding families from Trier, in Germany, arrived in Cuira as exiles from a resurgent witch hunt carried out in their homeland. These wizarding families were accepted into the community and allowed to send their children to Glatschastè. Over the next century, more than one hundred more families from Germany followed, fleeing widespread witch hunts carried out by rulers throughout the late 16th and 17th centuries.

When Wildheidhof School of Wizardry was abandoned in 1626, Glatschastè became the wizarding school of choice for German-speaking wizarding communities throughout Europe, its reputation having spread back to Germany in the decades since German-speaking students had first been accepted. This influx of new students lead to a doubling of the student population between 1620 and 1635. Overcrowded, the school saw a major expansion of its grounds in 1635, alongside the construction of a new castle atop a subpeak of Piz Glazial with surrounding ice gardens, a feature for which the school would later become famous.

In 1634, German-speaking students comprised a majority of the student body for the first time in Glatschastè's history, a situation that would never be reversed. In 1850, 73% of the student body were non-Romansh, with some 90% of those being from German families.

## Location

Located high in the Alps, atop a peak called Piz Glazial (meaning "Icy Peak" in Romansh), the exact location of Glatschastè was rendered unknowable to any person who had not personally been there. Despite its prominent location atop a high peak and its vast ice gardens, Glatschastè appeared as a nondescript mid-height peak to Muggles and wizards who had not personally been to the school.

Arrival to the school was accomplished by portkey, with a large foyer in the castle allowing entry from a single portkey located in San Murezzan. It was also possible to fly to the school by broomstick, as done by several students from Liechtenstein in 1849. Reaching the school on foot was thought to be possible but too difficult to attempt due to steep cliffs and glaciers that surrounded the grounds.

During the mountaineering craze of the mid 1800s, fears rose that non-Romansh Muggles or wizards would stumble upon the school while attempting to reach one of the peaks around the castle. These fears led to several new measures to protect the school's location, including artificial avalanches, charms to make the school's peak appear more dangerous than it was, and weather charms to create dangerous storms when passersby came too close to the school. By 1820, anti-apparition charms had been applied to every peak in the Romansh Alps, to prevent foreign wizards and witches from narrowing down the school's location by apparating between mountain tops.

Students in their 9th years would sometimes be assigned in trios to patrol the school grounds, including on school holidays, especially if proximity alert charms activated. These charms would frequently activate as a result of ibexes and capricorns traversing the glaciers around the school.

## Curriculum

Students attended Glatschastè for a standard nine years, beginning in the first August after their tenth birthday. Students were either 18 or 19 upon finishing their studies, which they achieved with their specialization exams, taken in the months before May of their ninth year. Students could choose to specialize in as few as three subjects for their final exams, or as many as eight. Passing the exam for their chosen specialized subjects permitted them to pursue various forms of employment in their lives after Glatschastè. Re-taking exams was not permitted.

### Courses

Students followed a relatively strict curriculum in their first years at Glatschastè, with the option for advanced and elective subjects largely not available until later years. All instruction at Glatschastè was carried out in Romansh. Students who were not native speakers of Romansh were required to have a basic ability in the language before arriving at the school for their first years and were required to take Romansh as a subject until their 6th years.

#### Required Courses

\*Romansh courses were required only for students who were not native speakers of Romansh

#### Elective Courses

\*Alchemy required high marks in advanced Potioncraft in the 7th year and permission of the Potioncraft professor. \*\*Ancient Studies required high marks in History of Magic in the 7th year and permission of the History of Magic professor. \*\*\*Apparition was to be taken either in the 8th year *or* in the 9th year, but not both. \*\*\*\*Curse Breaking required high marks in advanced Dueling in the 7th and 8th years and permission of the Dueling professor. \*\*\*\*\*Advanced Herbology and Advanced Magizoology required high marks in the advanced Herbology and Magizoology courses in the 8th year and permission of the Herbology and Magizoology professors respectively.

#### Advanced Courses

Advanced courses were limited-entry courses for students beginning in the 7th year who had displayed an aptitude for a particular subject in previous years and who professors believed would benefit from more challenging and rigorous classwork. Students who were accepted to an advanced course took the advanced in place of the standard course for the required subject. High marks in advanced courses were a requirement for some electives in the final two years at Glatschastè; for example high marks in an Advanced Potioncraft class, alongside the permission of the Potioncraft professor, were required for a student to take the Alchemy class beginning in their 8th year.

## Students

Andrin Carvertscha (1841-present)

Teigra Carvertscha (1841-present)

Giacumin Camenisch (1841-present)

Thomas Grünwald (1841-present)

Krescentia von Heid (1841-present)

Rainer Hämmerle (1841-present)

Heinrich Schächle (1841-present)

Wilhelm Bargetze (1841-present)