125 Mountain
Passes.
One Long Ascent.

FEATURED PASS

Julier

CH 🏔️ Graubünden / Graubünden 2'284 m 2

The Julier Pass is one of the oldest and most important crossings in Graubünden, climbing to 2,284 metres to link the Engadine with central Graubünden, from Silvaplana and St. Moritz in the south to Tiefencastel in the north. It has been travelled since Roman times – the Romans used the route for trade, and the remains of a Roman temple have been found at the top, where two monumental soapstone columns still flank the road. The European watershed crosses here too, dividing the waters between the Rhine and the Danube. The modern road, begun in the 1820s, became the first Alpine traverse fully surfaced in asphalt, between 1935 and 1940, and the Julier remains the most important northern gateway to the Engadine, open all year round while its high neighbours close under snow. Today, at the windswept summit where the Roman columns and a former Roman temple and medieval chapel once stood, rises a startling modern landmark: a tall red theatre tower, built in 2017 by the Origen cultural festival, engineered to withstand winds of 240 km/h and even avalanches, staging opera, ballet and music at 2,300 metres. Two thousand years apart, people still come to gather and perform on this same bleak, beautiful saddle.

From Bivio, GR