Introduction
Welcome to a walk that explores the Roman and pre-Roman layers of Chur, Switzerland's oldest continuously inhabited city. While the standard city walk covers the medieval old town and cathedral, this trail focuses specifically on the ancient heritage that lies beneath the surface: the Roman town of Curia Raetorum, the mysterious Rhaetian people who preceded the Romans, and the trade routes over the Alpine passes that made this crossroads one of the most strategic locations in the ancient world.
Chur sits at the convergence of five major Alpine valley systems. From here, routes lead south over the Julier and Splugen passes to Italy, east through the Engadin to Austria, west along the Rhine toward Lake Constance, and north toward the Swiss Mittelland. This geographic position has made Chur a natural hub of communication, trade, and military movement for at least five thousand years. The Romans understood this perfectly when they made Curia the capital of the province of Raetia Prima.
This walk takes you through the archaeological quarter, along fragments of Roman road, through the vineyards that the Romans first planted, and to viewpoints that help you understand why every civilisation that entered the Alps recognised the importance of this place.
Stop 1: Welschdorfli Archaeological Quarter — 46.8494, 9.5340
Begin at the Welschdorfli, the area just southeast of the cathedral hill. The name itself is significant: Welschdorfli means "little Romance-language village," a reference to the Romansh-speaking community that lived here in the medieval period when the lower town was predominantly German-speaking. This linguistic boundary within the city is a relic of the deeper cultural divide between the Latin-influenced south and the Germanic north that has defined Graubunden for two millennia.
The Welschdorfli is the location of the most significant archaeological excavations in Chur. Beneath the modern buildings and streets, archaeologists have uncovered layer upon layer of habitation stretching from the third millennium BC to the present. The earliest layers contain pottery, stone tools, and building remains from the Pfyn and Horgen cultures of the late Neolithic period.
Above these lie Bronze Age deposits with distinctive pottery and metalwork that show strong connections to the Laugen-Melaun culture of the eastern Alps, a civilisation that controlled the passes between the Rhine and Danube valleys. The Bronze Age settlement at Chur was substantial, with multi-roomed timber buildings arranged along a street grid, suggesting a degree of urban organisation that is remarkable for the period.
The Iron Age layers are associated with the Rhaetians, the enigmatic Alpine people who gave their name to the Rhaetian Railway, the Romansh language's ancient ancestor, and the Roman province of Raetia. Rhaetian inscriptions, written in an alphabet borrowed from the Etruscans, have been found at sites across Graubunden but remain only partially deciphered, leaving the Rhaetians as one of the great unsolved puzzles of Alpine archaeology.
Stop 2: Roman Curia Raetorum — 46.8498, 9.5335
Moving northward from the archaeological zone, you cross through the area that formed the core of the Roman town. Curia Raetorum was established after the Roman conquest of Raetia in 15 BC, when the stepsons of Emperor Augustus, Drusus and Tiberius, led a pincer campaign that subdued the Alpine tribes in a single season.
The Romans chose the existing Rhaetian settlement as their administrative centre because of its commanding position and its control of the pass routes. Over the following centuries, Curia grew into a prosperous provincial capital with all the amenities of Roman urban life: a forum, baths, temples, an aqueduct, and paved streets with drainage. The town's population at its peak may have reached three to four thousand people, a significant number for an Alpine settlement.
One of the most telling features of Roman Curia was its public baths. The Romans brought the culture of bathing wherever they went, and the presence of a bath complex in this small mountain town demonstrates how thoroughly Romanised the settlement became. The baths required a constant supply of heated water, which in turn required fuel and engineering infrastructure. Maintaining Roman standards of comfort in an Alpine climate was expensive and labour-intensive, but the colonists were committed to it.
The forum, or public marketplace, has been tentatively identified in the area south of the cathedral. Like all Roman forums, it would have served as the centre of economic, political, and social life: the place where goods were bought and sold, legal disputes were settled, political speeches were made, and the daily gossip of the community was exchanged. Standing here, you are at the heart of a community that bridged the cultural divide between the Mediterranean world and the Alpine north.
Stop 3: Roman Road Fragments — 46.8505, 9.5328
Walking through the upper old town, keep an eye on the ground beneath your feet. In several places, fragments of Roman road surface have been preserved and are visible through glass panels set into the modern paving. These fragments are among the most tangible surviving evidence of the Roman infrastructure that connected Curia to the rest of the Empire.
Roman roads in the Alps were among the most impressive engineering achievements of the ancient world. The main route south from Curia crossed the Julier Pass at 2,284 metres, one of the few Alpine passes that the Romans could traverse without a tunnel. The road was built to military specifications: at least three metres wide, with a packed gravel surface, drainage ditches on both sides, and milestones marking the distance in Roman miles.
The Rhaetisches Museum, which you may wish to visit separately, contains several Roman milestones found along the routes leading from Chur to the various passes. These heavy cylindrical stones, inscribed with the name of the reigning emperor and the distance to the next town, are the Roman equivalent of highway signs. They tell us not only about the road network but also about the political authority that maintained it: each emperor who repaired or extended a road had his name carved on new milestones, creating a permanent record of imperial investment in infrastructure.
The Romans also maintained a system of mansiones, or rest stations, at intervals along the major routes. These facilities provided food, shelter, and fresh horses for official couriers and military units, much like the hostels and inns that would serve the same routes in the medieval period. The mansio at Curia would have been a particularly important facility, as it was the last significant stop before the ascent to the passes.
Stop 4: The Vineyard Terraces — 46.8520, 9.5300
Descending toward the northern edge of the old town, you approach the vineyards that climb the slopes above Chur. Winemaking in this region dates back to Roman times, and the tradition has never been entirely interrupted. The Churer Herrschaft, the wine district that extends from Chur north along the Rhine, produces some of the finest Pinot Noir in Switzerland, and the connection to the Roman viticultural tradition is more than sentimental.
The Romans introduced systematic viticulture to the Alpine regions, bringing grape varieties and winemaking techniques from Italy. The south-facing slopes above Chur, protected from cold north winds and warmed by the foehn, proved ideal for grape cultivation. The microclimate here is remarkably mild for an Alpine location, and the growing season is long enough to ripen even late-maturing red varieties.
The terracing system visible on the slopes above you has been maintained and modified over two millennia. Roman terracing techniques, which involved cutting into the hillside and supporting each level with dry stone walls, established the basic pattern that medieval and modern vignerons have followed. The walls absorb solar heat during the day and release it at night, creating a warmer microclimate on the terraces than on the surrounding hillside.
Today, the Herrschaft Pinot Noir is considered one of the great Swiss red wines, with a depth and complexity that reflects both the terroir and the ancient tradition of cultivation. Several wineries in the area are open for tasting, and sampling the local wine is one of the most pleasurable ways to connect with Chur's Roman heritage.
Stop 5: Rhaetian Language Heritage Markers — 46.8525, 9.5295
As you walk through the northern part of the old town, look for the small markers and plaques that indicate Romansh place names and heritage sites. Romansh, the fourth national language of Switzerland, is a direct descendant of the Vulgar Latin spoken by the Roman colonists of Raetia. Over two thousand years, this spoken Latin evolved in isolation in the mountain valleys of Graubunden, developing into a distinct Romance language that preserves features of late Latin grammar and vocabulary that have been lost in French, Spanish, and Italian.
Romansh is not a single uniform language but a family of five regional varieties: Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter, and Vallader. A standardised written form, Rumantsch Grischun, was created in 1982 to provide a common written standard for official and educational purposes, but the regional varieties remain the languages of daily life in the Romansh-speaking valleys.
The decline of Romansh in Chur itself is a story of urbanisation and economic change. As the city grew and attracted German-speaking immigrants from the north, the Romansh-speaking community was gradually assimilated. By the nineteenth century, Romansh had largely disappeared from daily use in the city, though it survives in street names, place names, and the cultural memory of the community.
Efforts to revive and support Romansh have intensified in recent decades. The language has official status in the canton of Graubunden, Romansh-language schools and media exist, and there is a growing awareness of the linguistic heritage as a cultural treasure worth preserving. Walking through Chur with an awareness of the Romansh substrate beneath the German surface adds an enriching layer to the experience of the city.
Stop 6: Calanda Viewpoint — 46.8540, 9.5278
Walking north along the edge of the old town, you reach a viewpoint that looks up at the Calanda massif, the great wall of rock that rises to 2,806 metres directly above Chur. The Calanda is one of the most geologically interesting mountains in the region, composed of layers of limestone and marl that record the history of an ancient sea and the titanic forces that pushed these ocean-floor sediments high into the air.
This viewpoint also helps you understand the defensive logic of Chur's position. The Calanda forms a natural barrier to the west, while the Rhine Valley provides a moat-like feature to the east. An army or trading party approaching from the south through any of the passes would be funnelled through the narrow valley approaches before emerging into the broader space where Chur sits. Controlling this choke point meant controlling the entire network of pass routes.
The Calanda is also significant in the natural history of Graubunden. In 2012, a pack of wolves established a territory on the mountain, the first wolf pack in Switzerland in over a century. The return of the wolf to the Alps is one of the great conservation stories of recent decades, though it is not without controversy in a region where livestock farming remains an important part of the rural economy.
Stop 7: Rhine Bridge and Trade Route Legacy — 46.8545, 9.5268
Near the northern edge of the city, the Plessur River joins the Rhine, and bridges cross both waterways. The confluence of these rivers has been a crossing point since prehistoric times, and the bridges here represent the latest in a long succession of structures that have connected the two banks.
The trade that flowed through Chur was extraordinarily diverse. From the south came wine, olive oil, silk, spices, and manufactured goods from the workshops of northern Italy. From the north came tin, amber, furs, salt, and cattle. Chur's merchants grew wealthy as intermediaries, providing storage, transport, and financial services to the traders who passed through.
The volume of this transit trade can be gauged from the toll records that survive from the medieval and early modern periods. Thousands of pack animals crossed the passes each year, carrying goods in standardised loads called Saum, a measure of weight that varied from pass to pass but typically ranged from 100 to 150 kilograms. The routes were serviced by an elaborate infrastructure of roads, bridges, hostels, warehouses, and relay stations, much of it maintained by the revenues from the tolls.
Stop 8: Herrschaft Vineyards Viewpoint — 46.8558, 9.5282
Our walk ends at the edge of the Herrschaft vineyards, where a panoramic viewpoint looks north along the Rhine Valley toward Maienfeld, the town that inspired Johanna Spyri's Heidi stories, and the vast expanse of the Swiss Mittelland beyond.
From this point, the entire geography of Chur's importance becomes clear. Behind you, to the south, the mountains rise in serried ranks toward the passes. Before you, to the north, the valley opens and the terrain softens, leading toward the lowlands of central Europe. You are standing at the hinge point between these two worlds, the exact spot where the Alps meet the plateau, where the mountain routes converge into a single corridor.
This is the view that every civilisation that has passed through the Alps has seen. The Rhaetian traders driving their pack animals down from the passes. The Roman legions marching north to the frontier. The medieval pilgrims heading for the holy sites of Italy. The Renaissance merchants with their bales of silk and spice. Each of them passed through this precise point in the landscape, drawn by the same geographic logic that brought the first settlers here five thousand years ago.
Conclusion
The Roman and Rhaetian heritage of Chur is not locked behind museum glass. It lives in the vineyard terraces, in the street alignments, in the multilingual character of the canton, and in the enduring strategic importance of this Alpine crossroads. Walking this trail, you have traced the footsteps of the most ancient inhabitants of the Rhine Valley and understood why, of all the places in the Alps, this one has been home to humanity for fifty centuries without interruption.
Practical Information
- Best Time: Autumn is ideal for the vineyard colours and wine harvest atmosphere. Spring offers wildflowers on the slopes above the town.
- Wear: Good walking shoes for the vineyard paths, which can be uneven and steep in places.
- Bring: A wine glass if you plan to visit the Herrschaft wineries. Water and sun protection in summer.
- Nearby Food: The Altstadt wine bars serve Herrschaft Pinot Noir and Graubunden specialties. The Calanda Brau brewery offers tours and tastings.
- Combine With: A visit to the Rhaetisches Museum (allow 1-2 hours) for the full archaeological context. A half-day trip to the Herrschaft wine villages of Malans, Jenins, and Flasch for wine tasting.