Chur is the capital and largest town of the Swiss canton of the Grisons and lies in the Grisonian Rhine Valley where the Rhine turns towards the north in the northern part of the canton. The city is located on the right bank of the Rhine and is reputedly the oldest town in Switzerland.

The official language of Chur is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of Alemanni known as Grisonian German.  Romansh and Italian are significantly spoken in the town as a result of the trilingual identity of the canton.

On the 1st of January 2020 the former municipality of Maladers merged into Chur and Haldenstein also merged on the 1st January 2021.

Chur had an area of circa 54.33 km2 and of this area about 17.6% is used for agricultural purposes, whilst 52.1% is forested. During the past two decades the amount of land that is settled has increased by 86 ha (210 acres) and the agricultural land has decreased by 87 ha.

Chur is situated at a height of 1,949 ft (594 m) above sea level on the right bank of the Plessur river as it branches from the Schanfigg valley and about a mile above its junction with the Rhine. It is almost entirely surrounded by the Alps and overshadowed by the Mittenberg (northeast) and Pizoggel (southwest) hills which guard the entrance to the deeply-cut valley Schanfigg.

The water of Chur's spring is exported and sold as the exclusive  Passugger mineral water.

Chur is 120 kilometres (75 miles) by rail from Zürich and is the meeting-point of the routes from Italy over many Alpine passes (i.e. Lukmanier Pass, Splugen Pass and San Bernardino Pass) as well as from the Engadine (Albula Pass, Julier Pass) so that it is the centre of an active trade (particularly in wine from the Valtelline), though it also has a few local factories.

The city's main railway station is where the Swiss Federal Railways system link with that of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB). While the SBB lines serve most of Switzerland, most of Graubünden's internal rail traffic are sserved by RhB lines.

Chur is a stop on the famous Glacier Express Train which operates between St. Moritz and Zermatt.

One of the RhB lines to Arosa uses on-street running through streets in the centre of Chur and Sand in order to reach the station.

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Wes George
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