Davos

Davos is a high-alpine town and municipality in eastern Switzerland, in the canton of Graubünden (Grisons). It sits near the head of the Landwasser valley at about 1,560 metres above sea level - often described as the highest town in the Alps - with Lake Davos nearby and mountain passes and rail links connecting it to neighbouring valleys and the Engadin. The municipality is made up of several villages and hamlets, with Davos Dorf and Davos Platz forming the main, contiguous centre where most of the town’s civic life, commerce, and visitor infrastructure are concentrated. The recorded history of Davos begins in the High Middle Ages. The village is first mentioned in 1213 (as “Tavaus”), and from the late 13th century it was shaped by the arrival of Walser settlers - German-speaking migrants who were granted unusually extensive local self-government by regional lords. This tradition of community autonomy became a defining feature of Davos’ political culture in the centuries that followed. In the 15th century, Davos played a notable role in Graubünden’s league-based politics: it became associated with the League of the Ten Jurisdictions (founded in Davos in 1436), part of the network of alliances that eventually formed the basis of the region’s distinctive identity within Switzerland. For a long time Davos remained a remote mountain farming community - until a dramatic reinvention in the 19th century. In the 1860s, physician Alexander Spengler began promoting Davos’ high-altitude climate for treating respiratory illness (notably tuberculosis), helping transform the village into an internationally known health resort. Sanatoria and “cure” culture brought waves of patients and visitors, reshaping the local economy, architecture, and reputation. Davos’ sanatorium era also left a deep cultural imprint: it helped inspire the “magic mountain” image popularized by Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain, and the town became associated with a wider European story of medicine, convalescence, and modernity in the Alps. Out of this health-and-leisure boom, Davos evolved into a winter-sports destination. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was attracting visitors who helped popularize Alpine recreation; Davos also developed a strong ice-sports tradition, hosting competitions during the era of natural ice. One of the town’s most distinctive sporting institutions is the Spengler Cup, an invitational ice-hockey tournament first held in 1923 and still staged annually in late December - often described as the oldest event of its kind. Davos’ history in the 20th century also includes more complex chapters: during the 1930s and World War II, the town’s large German patient population and institutions created conditions for heightened political tensions and documented Nazi-linked activity in the locality, leaving a legacy that historians and civic leaders have continued to examine. In the post-war period, Davos’ identity expanded again - from resort town to international meeting place. The Davos Congress Centre opened in 1969, and in 1971 the first European Management Symposium (the origin of today’s World Economic Forum annual meeting) was held in Davos, anchoring the town’s modern global profile as a winter hub for high-level dialogue. Alongside conferences and tourism, Davos has also cultivated a reputation as a place for research and specialist institutions connected to the mountain environment (snow, climate, medicine, and related fields), reinforcing a civic character that blends alpine traditions with international exchange. Today, “Davos” simultaneously evokes a lived mountain community - spread across valleys and villages - and a symbolic crossroads where health, sport, culture, and global conversation have repeatedly reinvented the town over eight centuries.