| (gresonz´, Fr.
grezôN´) , Ger. Graubünden, canton
(1990 pop. 169,005), 2,746 sq mi (7,112 sq km) -
located in Eastern Switzerland, Sitting in a deep
valley carved by the Rhine, CHUR
(pronounced koor) & bordering on Italy
and Austria with Chur as its capital. It is the
largest and most sparsely populated of the
cantons, it is a region of Alpine peaks and
glaciers, of forested highlands, and of fertile
valleys. CHUR
has been a powerful ecclesiastical centre since
the fourth century, but has a history stretching
back much further: it is celebrated as the oldest
continuously inhabited city north of the Alps,
with archeological finds dating back to 3000 BC.
Situated on prime north–south routes of
commerce and communication, Curia Rhaetorium was
founded by the Romans after their conquest of 15
BC, and rapidly progressed to become capital of
their province Rhaetia Prima. St Luzius, a
missionary, is reputed to have brought
Christianity to the region in the fourth century,
and the first Bishop of Chur to be positively
documented was Asinio, in the year 451. By the
turn of the millennium, the bishop had become a
powerful political ruler, enjoying the patronage
of Holy Roman Emperors, and by 1170, the post was
officially recognized as a Prince-Bishopric. With
the populist movements of the fourteenth century,
the Prince-Bishop’s power began to erode,
and when the Reformation took hold in 1526,
Chur’s wealthy merchants and craftsworkers
were able to take over all significant political
decision making for themselves.
Industry is
generally limited and is centered at Chur. About
a fourth of the population speaks Romansh, a
Rhaetic-Romantic language, which was made a
national language in 1938; a smaller minority
speaks Italian, and the rest, German. A part of
Rhaetia under the Roman Empire, the territory
preserved Roman laws and customs, although it
nominally passed to the Ostrogoths and to the
Franks. In the 9th cent. the bishops of Chur
began to attain prominence in the region. The
bishops (after 1170 the prince-bishops) allied
themselves with the rising power of the
Hapsburgs. Their power, however, was checked and
gradually broken by three local leagues founded
between 1367 and 1436the League of God's House,
the Graubünden, or Gray League, and the
League of Ten Jurisdictions. The three leagues,
composed of communes and feudal lords, allied and
joined with the Swiss Confederation. In 1512 they
conquered the Valtellina from Milan. Only part of
the population accepted the Reformation
(1524-26). In the Thirty Years War the country
was rent by bloody strife between the Catholic
party, siding with Spain and the Holy Roman
emperor, and the Protestants, supporting Venice
and France. With the Valtellina the chief bone of
contention, the struggle was one of European
importance. In 1799 the Grisons was forced by the
French to enter the Helvetic Republic , and in
1803 it became a Swiss canton under Napoleon's
Act of Mediation. The Valtellina was definitively
lost at the Congress of Vienna (1815).
Today, as
capital of the canton and boasting “the best
shopping between Zürich and Milan”, Chur
retains a great deal of character. Its Old Town,
full of cobbled alleys, secret courtyards and
foursquare, solid townhouses, breathes the spirit
of the Middle Ages, and the huge cathedral
towering above symbolizes the rule of the
bishop-princes of years gone by.
Back
to Top
|
