Chur tourist information & hotel reservations.

We warmly welcome you to visit Chur and wish you a wonderful vacation.

Chur is the capital of the Grisons and is located 122 kilometers away from Zurich and 59 kilometers away from Davos. It is considered the oldest town in Switzerland and has been inhabited since 3000 B.C. There was a Roman settlement in its place in 15 B.C. which was called Curia Rhaetorum. When the people in the village were Christianized, the bishop there was the most powerful figure until 1526.
Chur is situated at 586 meters elevation, near the Rhine Valley and some mountains and the Plessur River passes directly through it. The town is located at the crossroad of many important roads and bears Italian and Rhaetian influences.
Chur is not only a loved place close to nature, but also a big trading centre and a railway junction. Through it, pass the Rhätische Bahn (to St. Moritz), the Chur-Arosa line, the Glacier Express, the Palm Express and the Bernina Express. From it you can also visit Splügen – another beautiful mountainous village.
If you are a sport-lover you can also find many attractive opportunities there. In the summer one can practice hiking and mountain biking, swimming in the pools in Sportanlagen Obere, plus some other indoor sports. During the winter you will find that Chur is pretty close to the best skiing places in the area, some of which are located at 2 700 meters elevation and only an hour away.
As an ancient settlement, Chur bears the signs of many great emperors, rulers and armies. The old part of the town still has narrow street, high towers and fountains, beautifully decorated with flowers. You’d betters explore this medieval part on foot which will enable you to see everything that interests you. Otherwise, there are also guided tours in German from April till October every Wednesday.

Chur’s Cathedral is located on Hof 19 and dates back to 1282 (the construction began in 1151). The cathedral was thoroughly renovated in the 19th century and in it you can still see the gold-plated wooden altar in Gothic style from the 15th century. The altar is really popular and the largest one in Switzerland. There still are renovations which will probably be finished in 2007 on the inside and some parts of the interior might be restricted.
In close proximity to the cathedral is located the baroque Bishop's Palace. It was built in 1732 and is not open for tourists as a bishop still lives there. The entrance is from Hofplatz where was located a Roman fort.
Bündner Kunstmuseum (Fine Arts Museum)
This museum is located in a park and is also called the Villa Planta. There you can see many paintings and other artworks by popular Grisons artists. Some of the exhibits are from Giovanni, Segantini, Angelica Kauffmann, Ferdinand Hodler, Cuno Amiet and Alberto and Augusto Giacometti. There are also artworks by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – a German painter, director of the Brücke School of expressionists.

Rätisches Museum
This folklore museum still holds many memories from the history of the region. In it you can see the agrarian origin of the Grisons.

Chur Transportation

There are many international railways getting to Chur. One of them begins in Sargans and there is also a railway from Chur to St. Moritz (Rhätische Bahn). Chur is also connected to Arosa and Zurich.
There are also regular buses from the train stations in Chur to the nearby villages. You can get to Davos and St. Moritz by bus and then make a connection to Munich.
By car you can reach Chur from Zurich in 90 minutes by taking N3 and then N13.

Visitor Information
There is a tourist office at Grabenstrasse 5 which is open every day except from Sunday.

For flights, trains and car-rental reservations as well as for buses, coaches and taxi ski transfers refer to the general Switzerland Transportation page!