Arosa is a town and a municipality in the Plessur Region in the canton of the Grisons in Switzerland. It is both a summer and a winter tourist resort.

On 1 January 2013, the former municipalities of Calfreisen, Castiel, Langwies, Lüen, Molinis, Peist and St. Peter-Pagig merged into the municipality of Arosa.

At the end of 2013 the Arosa ski resort was linked with Lenzerheide by cable-car, creating the new ski resort of Arosa Lenzerheide; since that change, transport passes have been valid in both resorts.

The official language of Arosa is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.

The resort is known throughout Switzerland for its famous ice hockey team, the EHC Arosa which used to be one of the most successful teams in the country.

History

Arosa is first mentioned about 1330 as Araus. In 1383 it was mentioned as Orossen and in 1428 it was first mentioned as Arosa.

Skiing in Switzerland received a big boost from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series. Conan Doyle, an avid sportsman, was wintering in Davos. For entertainment, he ordered some skiing "boards" from Norway and hiked up the mountain with two local guides. They then skied down into Arosa, ending their journey with a luncheon at a local inn, the Seehof, the first hotel in Arosa. Conan Doyle wrote of his pioneering Davos/Arosa ski adventure in a British magazine, The Strand, in 1894, and the story attracted British skiers to Switzerland.

Erwin Schrödinger was vacationing in Arosa at Christmas 1925 when he made his breakthrough discovery of wave mechanics.

In 1933, Thomas Mann stayed in Arosa during the first week of his Swiss exile.

The 1939 film Over the Moon (shot 1937–9) has brief Technicolor exterior shots of the train station and ski resort areas.

On 20 February 1940, Germany's Hassall met with British J. Lonsdale Bryant in Arosa, to make a plan to overthrow the ruling German Nazi Adolf Hitler.

The Cinema Museum in London holds film of the resort from 1959.

Geography

left|thumb|[[Obersee (Arosa)|Obersee]]

The municipality of Arosa has an area of . Of this, 42% is used for agriculture, and 15.2% is forested. 3.1% is settled (buildings and roads) and the remainder (39.7%) includes the rivers, glaciers and mountains which attract tourists which constitute the primary industry.

, there were 51.1% males and 48.9% females. The age distribution, , in Arosa is: 7.0% between 0 and 9 years old; 3.2% are 10 to 14; 4.5% are 15 to 19. 26.2% are between 20 and 29 years old. 18.0% are 30 to 39, 14.5% are 40 to 49, 11.6% are 50 to 59. 7.0% are between 60 and 69 years old, 4.9% are 70 to 79, 2.3% are 80 to 89, and 0.6% are 90 to 99.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 45% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (24.7%), the SP (17%) and the CVP (12%).

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! year

! population

|-

| 1550–1750

| c. 125

|-

| 1850

| 52

|-

| 1900

| 1,071

|-

| 1930

| 3,466

|-

| 1941

| 1,980

|-

| 2000

| 2,771

|-

|}

Heritage sites of national significance

thumb|Langwieser Viaduct near Langwies

The archeological site of Carschlingg near Castiel, a prehistoric, late-Roman and Early Middle Ages settlement, and the Langwieser Viaduct for the Rhätische Bahn are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The hamlets of Medergen, Sapün and Strassberg are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Climate

thumb|Horse racing on the frozen Obersee in winter

Arosa experiences a subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc) similar to that of Valdez, Alaska, with short, cool summers, and long cold, but not severely cold winters. Precipitation is abundant year round, and so is snowfall, with annual totals averaging 285 inches (723 cm).

Between 1961 and 1990 Arosa had an average of 147 days of rain per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was August, with an average of of precipitation and an average of 14.5 days with rain. The month with the most days of precipitation was June, with 15.6, but with only of precipitation. The driest month of the year was February with of precipitation over 14.5 days.

Transportation

The Rhaetian Railway operates frequent train services on the Chur–Arosa railway to Chur.

Notable people

thumb|140px|Carl Rüedi ca. 1885

  • Carl Rüedi (1848 – 1901 in Arosa), a Swiss pulmonologist, treated author Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Egbert Coleby Morland FRCS FRCP (1874–1955), an English physician, he practised as a pulmonary specialist in Switzerland 1903–1914, first at Davos and then in Arosa
  • Lieutenant Alfred Michael Koch MC (born 1894 in Arosa – 1984), a Swiss-born Canadian flying ace credited with ten aerial victories
  • Paul ten Bruggencate (1901 in Arosa – 1961), a German astronomer and astrophysicist.
  • Karl-Heinz Kipp (1924 – 2017 in Arosa), a German billionaire, lived in Arosa and owned the Tschuggen Grand Hotel
  • Youri Messen-Jaschin (born 1941 in Arosa), an artist of Latvian origin, he often combines oils and gouaches.

; Sport

  • David Zogg (1902–1977), a Swiss alpine and Nordic combined skier. He was raised in Arosa
  • Werner Lohrer (1917 in Arosa – 1991), an ice hockey player, bronze medallist at the 1948 Winter Olympics
  • Heini Lohrer (1918 in Arosa – 2011), an ice hockey player, bronze medallist at the 1948 Winter Olympics
  • Roger Staub (1936 in Arosa – 1974), an alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist at the 1960 Winter Olympics
  • Werner Geeser (1948 in Arosa – 2011), a Swiss cross-country skier, competed in the 1972 Winter Olympics
  • Engelhard Pargätzi (born 1959 in Arosa), a retired Swiss alpine skier who competed in the 1976 Winter Olympics
  • Isabel Waidacher (born 1994 in Arosa), a Swiss ice hockey player, six-time Swiss champion with the ZSC Lions Frauen

See also

  • 1304 Arosa

References

  • Tourism information
  • Alpine Pearls
  • Livecams of Arosa