Chur

Chur claims to be the oldest town in Switzerland, and the claim holds up: excavation under the town has found continuous settlement going back roughly five thousand years, to the neolithic. The Romans made it the capital of a province, and it has been a bishop’s seat since the fifth century.

It is the capital of Graubünden, the largest and emptiest canton, where all three of Switzerland’s language families meet — German, Italian and Romansh.

Most visitors pass through it changing trains, which is a shame, because the old town is compact, largely pedestrian, and worth two hours.

The old town

Small enough to see properly in a morning, with painted house fronts, arcades and two surviving town gates.

The Hof — the cathedral quarter — sits slightly above the rest and was a separate walled enclave belonging to the bishop, which is why it feels detached. The cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption is twelfth-century, dark, and holds a late-Gothic carved high altar that is among the largest in the country. The treasury has reliquaries going back to the Carolingians.

Bündner Kunstmuseum holds Giovanni Segantini, Angelika Kauffmann and the Giacomettis — Alberto’s family came from the Bergell valley in this canton. The building’s 2016 extension is a dark cube of patterned concrete and is worth seeing on its own.

Rätisches Museum covers five thousand years of the valley in a townhouse.

The railway junction

This is why most people are here, and it is a good reason.

Chur is where the standard-gauge national network meets the Rhaetian Railway, the metre-gauge system that covers Graubünden. From this station:

• The Glacier Express west towards Zermatt, and the Albula line south-east to St. Moritz — both UNESCO-listed
• The Bernina Express south to Tirano in Italy
• Lines into the Prättigau, the Surselva and towards Davos and Arosa

The Arosa line deserves a mention of its own: it leaves Chur through the streets, running along the road past the shops before starting a 1,100 m climb into the mountains. It is an ordinary local service and one of the best hours of railway in the country.

Nearby

• The Rhine gorge — the Ruinaulta, half an hour west, white limestone walls above the young Rhine, best seen from the train or by raft
• Arosa — an hour up the valley, ski resort in winter, walking in summer
• St. Moritz — two hours on the Albula line
• Bad Ragaz — twenty minutes north, for the thermal baths and the Tamina gorge

Getting there

• By train — Zurich an hour and a quarter direct.
• On foot — the old town starts five minutes from the station.

When to go

Any time; it is a working town rather than a resort. Autumn is the pick, when the Graubünden larches turn and the light in the valley is at its best.