Chur

Sister cities

• Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
• Mondorf-les-Bains
• Mayrhofen
• Olathe
• Cabourg
• Terracina
• Engstingen

History

Archaeological evidence of settlement at the site, in the Eastern Alps, goes back as far as the Pfyn culture (3900–3500 BC), making Chur one of the oldest settlements in Switzerland. Remains and objects from the Bronze and Iron Ages have also been found in the eastern sector of the centre of the current city. These include Bronze-Age Urnfield and Laugen-Melaun settlements from 1300 to 800 BC and Iron-Age settlements from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC. The Roman Empire conquered the area that then came to be known as the Roman province of Raetia in 15 BC. Under emperor Diocletian (late 3rd century AD), the existing settlement of Curia Raetorum (later Chur) was made the capital of the newly established province of Raetia prima. In the 4th century Chur became the seat of the first Christian bishopric north of the Alps. Despite a legend assigning its foundation to an alleged British king, St. Lucius, the first known bishop is one in AD 451. The bishop soon acquired great temporal powers, especially after 831 when his dominions were made dependent on the Empire alone. After the invasion of the Ostrogoths it may have been renamed Theodoricopolis; in the 6th century it was conquered by the Franks. The city suffered several invasions, by the Magyars in 925–926, when the cathedral was destroyed, and by the Saracens (940 and 954), but afterwards it flourished thanks to its location where the roads from several major Alpine transit routes come together and continue down the Rhine. The routes had already been used under the Romans but acquired greater importance under the Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Otto I granted the town the right to collect tolls in 952 and appointed his vassal Hartpert as bishop of Chur in 958, giving the bishopric further…

Geography

Chur has an area (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . About 17.6% is used for agricultural purposes and 52.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 26.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 3.9% is unproductive land. Over the past two decades (1979/85–2004/09) the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by . Chur is situated at a height of above sea level, on the right bank of the torrent Plessur just as it issues from the valley Schanfigg and about a mile above its junction with the Rhine, almost entirely surrounded by the Alps, overshadowed by the (northeast) and Pizokel (southwest), hills that guard the entrance to the deep-cut valley Schanfigg. This pair of megafans is global consequential in scale, and as part of the Alpenrhein cluster of 11 anomalously large debris fans they attest to an episode of major landscape dislocation. Chur has an oceanic climate in spite of its inland position. Summers are warm and sometimes hot, normally averaging around during the day, whilst winter means are around freezing, with daytime temperatures being about . Between 1981 and 2010 Chur had an average of 104.6 days of rain per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was August, with an average of of precipitation over an average of 11.2 days. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 6.6 days.

Most-observed species

• Narrow-leaved Ragwort

  Senecio inaequidens DC. · Magnoliopsida
  19,353
• Meadow Brown

  Maniola jurtina (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  9,172
• Marbled White

  Melanargia galathea Linnaeus, 1758 · Insecta
  6,723
• Scotch Argus

  Erebia aethiops Esper, 1777 · Insecta
  5,189
• Chalk-hill Blue

  Lysandra coridon (Poda, 1761) · Insecta
  4,108
• Common Blue

  Polyommatus icarus (von Rottemburg, 1775) · Insecta
  3,184
• Small Tortoiseshell

  Aglais urticae (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  2,904
• Silver-washed Fritillary

  Argynnis paphia (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  2,790

Most recent

• M 3.7 — 2026-04-26
  4 km N of Quarten, Switzerland
• M 4.2 — 2024-06-04
  2 km NNW of Unteriberg, Switzerland
• M 3.8 — 2022-09-01
  2 km WSW of Sevelen, Switzerland
• M 2.5 — 2021-10-03
  5 km NNE of Silandro, Italy
• M 4 — 2020-10-25
  5 km ESE of Ennenda, Switzerland
• M 3.6 — 2020-08-08
  5 km SE of Gramais, Austria