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Kunkels
1'358 m
Graubünden / St. Gallen
The Kunkelspass is a low, quiet crossing of the Glarus Alps at 1,357 metres, linking Vättis in the canton of St. Gallen with Tamins in Graubünden.
1'358 m
Graubünden / St. Gallen
The Kunkelspass is a low, quiet crossing of the Glarus Alps at 1,357 metres, linking Vättis in the canton of St. Gallen with Tamins in Graubünden.
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DESCRIPTION
The Kunkelspass is a low, quiet crossing of the Glarus Alps at 1,357 metres, linking Vättis in the canton of St. Gallen with Tamins in Graubünden. Its route is ancient – finds suggest the pack-mule path over the Kunkels was already used in Roman times, and it later took on great importance for the monastery of Pfäfers, which owned a lot of land in the region. Its role was as a back door: an alternative for times when the Rhine valley below was flooded and impassable, or a way to bypass the toll stations strung along the valley floor, while also linking the alpine pastures of Tamins to the markets of the south.
The narrow road that drops to Tamins is a marvel in itself, barely 2.3 metres wide and built during the First World War, it is carved from a sheer rock face through a long stretch of hand-crafted tunnels, their windows opening onto 300-metre drops. Closed to ordinary traffic – a toll and a permit from Tamins are required – it belongs today to cyclists and walkers. At the summit a lovely plateau opens like an arena, ringed by the Calanda, Crap Mats and Ringelspitz – part of the UNESCO World Heritage Tektonikarena Sardona, where ancient rock was thrust up and over far younger layers. A modest crossing, but a spectacular and storied one.
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