History
The Walser Colony
The first known colonies that were mentioned in historic sources from the 13th century, were two roman farmhouses called “Meran” (Maran) and “Pradaz” (Prätsch). A bigger colonisation took place in the year 1300, when Walser people from Davos moved to today’s Arosa area and slowly suppressed the roman element. While they owned seven or eight estates in Davos (called “Tafaus” at the time), in those days the area belonged to the Barons zu Vaz, afterwards to the Count of Toggenbut, then to the Count of Montfort and finally to the Archduke of Austria.
The main source of income during the late Middle Ages and far beyond was alpine farming. During the 15th and 16th century iron ore was exploited and stored at the Isel. It yielded small profits and required large forest clearing. Still today various area names are reminders of the mining activities. Also, during this time (1490 – 1493) the mountain chapel „Bergkirchli“ in Innerarosa was built. The colony had now grown up to 140 members. In 1575, the climate changes and a difficult economic environment forced the farmers to sell their pastures to Chur and Maienfeld. In 1851, Arosa became an independent community. However at this time, Arosa has hit the economic rock bottom and only counted 56 inhabitants.
Towards the end of the 19 th century, the quiet mountain valley was discovered by the new tourism movement, which provoked an incredible development of the region. It started with the construction of the Poststrasse that connected Chur and Langwies in 1875 and its continuation to Arosa in 1890. Two years before, the German Dr. Otto Herwig built the first sanatorium und until 1900 Arosa benefitted from tourists who were looking for fresh air and relaxation during the summer months. Winter sports were still at its beginnings. Yet, the village experienced a huge boom so that its population grew from 61 to 1,071 between 1870 and 1900 and until 1930 it even reached 3,466 inhabitants. Thanks to the building of the Chur-Arosa-Train from 1912 – 1914, a bold construction at that time, and the opening of the road from Chur to Arosa for cars in 1927, the village became even better accessible.
Through the crisis in the 30's and the Second World War Arosa suffered some setbacks, but at the same time Arosa changed from the spa resort to the winter sports resort. Newly discovered medicine made a stay in a spa resort redundant. The rise of winter sports was mostly able to compensate for the loss of the spa tourism, however, the population decreased notably to 1,980 during the Second World War. Before the war broke out, the first three ski lifts opened. Arosa was ready for the huge upswing that followed after the war. Sanatoriums and clinics were transformed into sports hotels, new ski lifts were built and in 1956/57 the attractive cable car Arosa – Weisshorn was opened. The number of hotel beds and overnight stays increased rapidly and the population grew to 3,781 in 1996.
That is how Arosa started from a modest farmer village in the mountains, transformed into a famous spa resort and finally became a well-known and prosperous sports and holiday resort.
Today, Arosa offers over 12,000 guest beds, which produce 900,000 overnight stays a year. Arosa has now 2,600 full year inhabitants. An additional 1,300 seasonal workers during the winter and about 200 during the summer come to Arosa to help out in the tourism or the construction sectors.
Year Dates (in German)
