Arosa

Erwin Schroedinger, then a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Zurich, traveled to Arosa for the Christmas holidays in December 1925. He stayed at the Villa Frisia at Sonnenbergstrasse 14. During this holiday, Schroedinger worked on finding a proper wave equation for Louis de Broglie's 'matter waves.' On 27 December 1925, he wrote to physicist Wilhelm Wien that he had found a model whose 'self-frequencies' matched those of the hydrogen atom. His paper 'Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem' was received by the journal Annalen der Physik on 27 January 1926. He told a colleague he had 'barely gone skiing because he had been working on a few calculations.' Einstein wrote to him: 'The idea behind your work is proof of true genius!' Schroedinger shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 2026, the Swiss Academy of Sciences honored Arosa as a 'Chemical Landmark' on the centenary.

The Arosa Bear Sanctuary (Arosa Baerenland) was conceived in 2010 by tourism director Pascal Jenny and opened on 3-5 August 2018 near the Weisshorn cable car's middle station at over 2,000 metres elevation. The international animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS partnered with Arosa Tourism. Napa, born 12 December 2006, was a former circus bear who had lived for years in a tiny, rusty cage in the Corona circus in Serbia; he arrived on 4 July 2018 as the first resident. Amelia and Meimo, two restaurant bears from Albania who spent years in a 60-square-metre concrete enclosure, arrived in February 2019. Jambolina, a former circus bear from Ukraine, arrived in December 2020. Sam and Jamila, siblings who spent nearly two decades in separate concrete pits at a zoo in Skopje, were rescued in 2021. Arosa residents voted in favor with over 78% support.

The Chur-Arosa railway, opened on 12 December 1914, is 25.7 km long, metre-gauge, climbing 1,155 metres from Chur (585 m) to Arosa (1,740 m) with a maximum gradient of 6%. The line passes through 19 tunnels and crosses 41 bridges and viaducts. The crown jewel is the Langwieser Viaduct: designed by Hermann Schuerch and built by Eduard Zueblin between 1912 and 1914, it is 287 metres long with a main arch span of 100 metres rising 62 metres above the Plessur valley. It was the world's first railway bridge built entirely of reinforced concrete and, at completion, the longest in the world. The road from Chur to Arosa features approximately 360 curves over 30 kilometres. The Schanfigg valley first appears in records as 'Scanavico' in 765 AD. German-speaking Walser settlers arrived after 1300.

On 23 March 1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, set out at 4 AM from Frauenkirch near Davos with two local guides, the Branger brothers (Tobias and Johannes), to cross the Maienfelder Furgga pass on skis to Arosa. The Branger brothers had first completed this crossing exactly one year earlier, on 23 March 1893, among the earliest ski mountaineers in the Alps. The journey took approximately 7 hours. Conan Doyle wrote humorously about the toll on his clothing: 'My tailor claims that Harris Tweed does not wear out. That is pure theory that does not stand up to thorough scrutiny. Between the Furgga Pass and Arosa he can inspect numerous samples of his fabric.' His article 'An Alpine Pass on Ski' was published in The Strand Magazine in December 1894 and is credited with helping popularize Alpine skiing among the British public.

Thomas Mann (1875-1955), the Nobel Prize-winning German author, was a regular guest in Arosa with his wife Katia, who was treated at the Waldsanatorium for a lung condition. Mann began composing 'Der Zauberberg' (The Magic Mountain) while visiting her there, though the novel's setting became the fictional Berghof sanatorium in Davos. In February 1933, Mann was on a lecture tour when Hitler seized power. His children Klaus and Erika warned him not to return to Munich. Mann retreated to Arosa, staying at the Neues Waldhotel, where in March 1933 he and Katia made the momentous decision not to return to Germany. Mann's German citizenship was revoked in 1936; he never lived in Germany again. The Waldhotel opened in 1910 as the Waldsanatorium Arosa for lung patients.

The Bergkirchli (Mountain Chapel), completed in 1493, is the oldest surviving building in Arosa, located in Innerarosa at approximately 1,900 metres above sea level. Notable features include a late Gothic vaulted wooden ceiling, a large Maria bell from 1492, and a house organ from the first half of the 18th century. After 1300, German-speaking Walser settlers crossed the Strela Pass from Davos and established themselves in the upper Schanfigg valley. Approximately 30 Walser families settled in scattered hamlets. Until 1851, Arosa politically belonged to Davos and had only 56 inhabitants. The name 'Arosa' first appears in 1428.

Napa, born 12 December 2006, was a former circus bear who lived for years in a tiny, rusty cage in the Corona circus in Serbia. He arrived at the Arosa Bear Sanctuary on 4 July 2018 as the first resident. The sanctuary is located near the Weisshorn cable car's middle station at over 2,000 metres elevation, offering views of the Aroser Weisshorn (2,653 m) and surrounding peaks. An adventure trail with suspension bridges opened on 17 July 2020, and the Arosa Bear Academy educational program launched in July 2020. Napa was euthanized in November 2020 due to epilepsy complications caused by years of mistreatment. The sanctuary welcomed its 100,000th visitor on 2 July 2020.

The Langwieser Viaduct, designed by Hermann Schuerch and built by Eduard Zueblin between 1912 and 1914, is the crown jewel of the Chur-Arosa railway. It is 287 metres long with a main arch span of 100 metres, rising 62 metres above the Plessur valley. It was the world's first railway bridge built entirely of reinforced concrete and at completion the longest reinforced-concrete bridge in the world. A total of 7,469 cubic meters of concrete and 250 tons of steel were used. Construction cost CHF 625,000. The Langwieser Viaduct is now a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire Chur-Arosa line cost CHF 402,700 per kilometre, the most expensive on the Rhaetian Railway network.