The Albula Pass and its History

14 September 2022

The Albula Pass (canton of Grisons) has been an important trade route and strategic pass since the Confederation conquered the Italian territories in the Veltina around 1500.

Merchants, called Säumer, transported wine from Italy and salt, grains and rice from Tyrol with donkeys, horses and mules. To the south, they sold cattle, dairy products, ores and metals from Bergün (Bravuogn in Romanic) and Filisur.

A  postal service was established in 1548. It also transported people in diligence, large carriages pulled by six or eight horses, over the pass. The French king, who had been an ally of the Confederation of thirteen cantons and their allies, including the Freistaat der Drei Bünde, today’s Graubünden, initiated the postal service to the Republic of Venice in that year.

Although the Splügen and Septimer passes also grew in importance, the Albula pass remained a vital traffic route for people, mail and goods. In 1866 the four-metre wide road between Bergün and Le Punt in Upper Engadine was completed. The journey from Chur to St. Moritz took from then on ‘only’ fourteen hours. The Albula railway in 1903 shortened the trip to a few hours.

 

Landwasserviaduct, Filisur. Photo: TES

Because of the ban on cars in the canton, it was not until 1925 that cars could use the pass. The Albulabahn, the famous Landwasserviaduct at Filisur and the almost six-kilometre-long Albulatunnel have been registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2008. Today, the Albula Pass is primarily a tourist route and a pass for local travel.

The Albula pass was part of the defensive line, the Reduit, in the Alps during the Second World War (1939-1945) under the name of the Sperre Albula. Every pass in the canton was a fortress of rocks, bunkers and stone obstacles during this period.