The District of Chur



The district of Chur coincides with the territory of the commune of 
the town.  The name Curia is pre-Roman and is derived from the old 
Celtic word  "koria" meaning  "tribe".

The important part which the settlement has played in the history of 
Rhaetia throughout the centuries is chiefly due to its geographical 
position: it controls the lower or Italian route to the Splügen and 
Bernardin, the higher route to the Juliet and the Septimer, the 
Lukmanier and Oberalp route, and also the route to Schanfigg
and the Strela pass.

In view of its favourable position it is not surprising that traces 
of Neolithic settlement have been found in the area of Welschdörfli, 
i.e., going back to the year 3000 B.C. Continuous settlement, however,
 can only be proved from the late Iron Age (about 500 B.C.).

A Roman fragment excavated at Welschdörfli in 1965 proves that at the 
time of the birth of Christ Chur was a Roman administrative centre; 
the fragment refers to Lucius Caesar, the adopted son of the Emperor 
Augustus.  So far the excavations at the Roman settlement at 
Welschdörfli date mainly from the lst and 2nd centuries A.D. It is 
highly probable that the Romans built a fort on the Hof, but there is 
no concrete archeological evidence to support this.

When the old province of Rhactia was divided in the middle of the 4th 
century, Chur became the seat of the Governor.  A short time after 
the Romans left the territory north of the Alps, mention is made of a 
Bishop of Chur, Asinio, in a document of the Synod of Milan dated 451.


After the turmoil of the Great Migration, Rhaetia became part of the 
Frankish empire.  Chur became "civitas publica ". It was the seat of 
the Präses, the temporal lord of the country.  In this independent 
church state a local family, the Victorides, held the office of the 
Bishop as well as the office of the Präses.

This combination came to an end when, around the year 800, the Franks 
made a new division of the land and Chur became the seat of the Duke. 
 Thereupon the bishopric was separated from the duchy; the diocese 
became part of the archbishopric of Mainz and was no longer joined to 
the metropolitan alliance of Milan.  This was also the beginning of a 
period of Germanisation, which was probably completed in the 15th 
century.

In a document dated 831 the Emperor, Ludwig the Pious, conferred 
immunity on the bishop's possessions in Chur-rhaetia, Alsactia and 
Alemania which meant that he was exempt from paying various public 
duties and taxes and that officials could not intervene.  These 
seignorial rights and immunity made it possible for the bishop to 
become the actual master of the town.

The politics of the Ottonic emperors in Italy made Chur a very 
important town again, as it held the key position to so many passes.  
The bishop, as the guardian of these passes, was gradually given all 
the fiscal rights of the duchy by the Emperor, rights of toll and 
mint, half the town of Chur, and many other privileges.  Under 
Barbarossa he even became Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, a title he 
held up to 1803.

The decline of the power of the Emperor also caused difficulties for 
the bishop.  The self-consciousness of the citizens of the town was 
strengthened by trade and commerce.  In 1282 the citizens and council 
of the town are mentioned, who also had their own seal.  With its 
gate and three towers it refers to the walls, built in the first half 
of the 13th century, which protected the mediaeval city at the foot 
of the bishop's residence.  In 1367 the citizens took an active part 
in the foundation of the League of God's House, which opposed the 
bishop, who had allied himself with Austria and sold a number of 
rights.

In 1413 the town received the right to build a market-house and to 
collect tolls and transport duties.  After the catastrophe of the 
great fire in 1464 the citizens of Chur were given the privilege by 
the Emperor to introduce 5 guilds and lay down their rules.  These 
guilds helped in a decisive way to shake off the sovereignty of the 
bishop.  At the head of the city there were the Great and the Small 
Council, whose members were elected from the guilds.  The mayor was 
responsible for current affairs.

Chur was the place where the League of God's House met, in rotation 
with Davos and Ilanz, and assemblies of the highest authorities in 
the Free State were held there.  Ambassadors of foreign countries 
such as Austria, Spain, France, and Venice, had their residences 
there.  In 1499 the victory over Austria and the Empire at Calven was 
celebrated at Chur.

During. the Reformation Chur took a leading part under Johannes 
Comander, a friend of Zwingli's.  The spiritual and political 
emancipation of the citizens from the bishop resulted in the Hof (the 
residence of the bishop) becoming a religious and political enclave, 
a situation which remained until the introduction of the cantonal 
constitution in 1854 and which led to many disputes, for instance 
concerning the right of sanctuary.

During the wars of the Grisons the town was known as a Spanish-
Austrian nest.  It was besieged by the people of Prätigau in 1622 and 
the Austrian troops were forced to leave.  A climax in the political 
turmoil of those years was the murder of Jörg Jenatsch in the 
"Staubigen Hüetli " during the pre-Lent carnival of 1639.

Of even greater consequence for the town than the political troubles 
were the great fires of 1464, 1574 and 1674, and also the epidemics.  
There was an outbreak of plague in the second half of the 16th 
century, and the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1629 claimed over 1000 
victims.

After Rhaetia had gained its freedom, a goal for which Jenatsch had 
striven, quieter times returned to Chur.  Service for foreign powers, 
trade, and the leasing of fiscal rights, brought wealth to the 
leading families.

After the upheavals of the French Revolution, during which the town 
was occupied and ransacked in turn by French and Austrian troops, the 
town became the capital of the canton when the Grisons joined the 
Confederation in 1803.

The bill on the division of the canton was passed in 1851, and the 
town, with Masans and Araschgen, became the district of Chur.  
Economically, agriculture dominated at Chur until the late Middle 
Ages.  The transport trade, which had always been a considerable 
source of income, reached its climax in the first half of the 19th 
century when the roads across the Alps in the Grisons were improved.  
This lasted until the railway through the Gotthard was opened.  
Crafts and trades were organised within the guilds, and the catering 
and hotel trades were especially important to the economy.  Of no 
less importance were the tolls and duties, which brought the Salis, 
Massner and Bavier families great wealth when these rights were 
leased in 1716.  The corn trade held a special position.  In the 
first half of the 17th century special corntrading companies came 
into being.  Many families gained profits from foreign service and 
from the offices in the Valtellina.



Famous people ftom Chur:

Johannes Comander (1484-1557) from Maienfeld.  After attending the 
grammar school at St. Gall he studied at the University of Basle 
together with Zwingli, where he took his bachelor's degree.  In 1512 
he became a parson at Escholzmatt in Entlebuch.  In 1523 he was 
elected by the council of Chur as minister of St. Martin's Church.  
In his sermons he followed the teaching of Zwingli.  At the diet of 
the Three Leagues he was accused of heresy, but he managed to arrange 
a disputation at Ilanz in 1526.  Although no decision was taken, 
Comander won a personal victory.  Later he wrote the Chur Catechism 
with Johannes Blasius, helped to found the Evangelical Rhaetian Synod,
 and preached (in vain) against the purchase of offices, against the 
so-called pensions from foreign countries, and against foreign 
service as mercenaries.  Comander is considered to be the leader of 
the Reformation in the Grisons.

Simon Bavier (1825-1896) from Chur.  After his studies abroad he 
entered the services of the canton as an engineer and assisted La 
Niccas to build a network of roads in the Grisons.  Later he became 
an ardent fighter for a railway across the eastern Alps, and his fame 
as an expert in railway matters soon spread abroad.  His main career, 
however, was politics.  He became Federal Commissioner in 1876, and 
succeeded in settling the conflict at Stabio by means of mitigation 
between the radical and conservative parties of the Ticino.  In 1878 
he was the first citizen of the Grisons to be elected to the Federal 
Council, and he represented the government as its President when the 
Gotthard railway was opened in 1882.  When he left the Federal 
Council in the same year he went to Rome as ambassador, an office 
which he held up to his death.

District Coat of Arms: Silver, treble-crenellated city gate gules, 
within the gate rampant ibex sable with claws gules.  Blazonry: It is 
the traditional coat of ams of the town of Chur, simplified and 
reduced to the most important heraldic element.  District colours: 
red-white-black.


NOTE:  This document was taken from the book:  GRAUBÜNDEN GESCHICHTE SEINER KREISE