Graubüden & Engadin Chur
Chur
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A handcrafted itinerary for Chur.
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Chur sits in the Rhine Valley of eastern Switzerland, capital of the canton of Graubünden. Archaeological finds date settlement here back more than 13,000 years, making it the oldest city in the country. The old town is car-free: narrow alleys, small squares, the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption rising over rooftops since the 12th century. Two of Switzerland's best-known panoramic trains, the Glacier Express and the Bernina Express, both depart from Chur's station.
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Routes and itineraries curated for Chur.
What makes Chur slow travel perfect
Chur is a city that has had a long time to settle into itself. Thirteen thousand years of continuous habitation leave a different kind of mark than a well-preserved old quarter usually does: the streets don't feel staged, they feel used. Walk the old town slowly and the layers show, a Roman-era foundation here, a Reformation-era church there, a shopfront that has sold the same trade for generations.
The cathedral anchors the upper old town, its origins reaching into the 12th century, when Chur was seat of a powerful prince-bishopric. A short climb from the centre, the gondola to Brambrüesch rises to 1,600 metres, opening onto the surrounding Alps in under fifteen minutes.
What makes Chur worth pausing in, rather than passing through, is its position as a departure point without being only that. The Glacier Express toward Zermatt and the Bernina Express toward Tirano both start here, and it's tempting to treat the city as a platform, a place to board and forget. But the Rhine Gorge, Ruinaulta, waits just up the valley, cut by the same river that runs past Chur's old town walls. The city rewards a night or two before the train pulls out.