Chur

Chur lies in the Alpine Rhine valley where routes over several mountain passes converge. The Roman settlement of Curia Raetorum became the capital of Raetia Prima under Diocletian, and Chur later became the seat of a powerful bishop. In 952 Emperor Otto I granted the town the right to collect tolls; its bishops controlled the road towards Chiavenna, across the Alps.

In 1367 communities formed the League of the House of God at Chur to resist the growing power of the bishop and the Habsburgs. After a great fire in 1464, the emperor confirmed the town's rights, and its citizens adopted a constitution placing government in the hands of the guilds. The league joined two others to form the Three Leagues. From 1523 Johannes Comander preached the Reformation in Chur; by 1527 the town, apart from the bishop's estates, had adopted it. In 1803 the Three Leagues became the Swiss canton of Graubünden, with Chur as its capital.