Vals

Vals, a high-mountain municipality nestled within the Surselva Region of Graubünden, Switzerland, encompasses some 175.56 square kilometres at elevations ranging from 1,252 metres in the village core to 3,402 metres atop the Rheinwaldhorn; as of 31 December 2020 its population stood at 946, of whom over 94 percent speak German, with Romansh and Italian as notable minorities.

From its earliest occupation, Vals bore witness to human presence: Bronze Age artefacts unearthed around its thermal springs and the Tomül Pass attest to millennia-old familiarity with its waters, while Iron Age remnants on the Valserberg slopes indicate pastoral or strategic use long before any chronicle recorded its name. During the 11th and 12th centuries, local Romansh inhabitants extensively cultivated the Valser valley, which first enters written record in the mid–12th century as in Valle. By approximately 1290, the settlement comprised scarcely more than four to seven farmhouses tending flocks of sheep on its Alpine grids, yet even this nascent community bore the imprint of cross-cultural currents that would shape its fabric for centuries.

The 13th century witnessed the arrival of the Walser—German-speaking migrants expelled from the canton of Wallis—whose expansion through the upper valley was checked in 1457 when authorities forbade intermarriage or land acquisition from the Romansh populace. Consequently, the Walsers clustered at the valley’s terminus, where land remained unclaimed, introducing the characteristic Valliser architectural idiom: timber-rich dwellings crowned by sharply pitched roofs, in contrast to the stone-heavy constructions of their neighbours. This style endures today in the region’s typical farm settlements, many of which, though no longer inhabited year-round, continue to serve as seasonal alpine pastures.

To the south of the main village, the hamlet of St. Martin traces its origins to Walterian guests who established it around the 14th century. Initially administered as a fief by noble families under the auspices of the Bishopric of Chur, St. Martin’s ecclesiastical allegiance shifted over time: its church, consecrated in 1345 under the patronage of St. Vincent, fell under Tersnaus after 1528, briefly regained a German-speaking Prebend in 1776, and then, in 1868, once more reverted to Tersnaus’s spiritual authority. Politically, St. Martin coalesced as a distinct municipality in 1878, having previously existed as a neighbourhood of Tersnaus since at least 1671. Despite its administrative independence, it remained steadfastly rural, resisting the electrification that reached neighbouring localities until it, in 1972–73, became the last Swiss municipality to join the national grid.

The contemporary municipality of Vals, following the 2015 merger with St. Martin, spans nearly 176 square kilometres. Of this territory, agricultural land—namely Alpine meadows and pastures—accounts for approximately one-third, while dense forest covers some 12 percent. Settlements occupy less than one percent of the area, and watercourses, including glacial streams and the Zervreilasee reservoir, comprise just over two percent. Unproductive terrain—comprising rocky slopes, glaciers, and unproductive vegetation—dominates more than half of the domain, conferring upon Vals one of the largest municipal footprints in Switzerland, roughly commensurate with the Principality of Liechtenstein.

Nestled between the German-speaking Safiental to the east, the Romansh-speaking Lumnezia to the north, and the Italian-speaking Blenio beyond the Adula Alps, with Hinterrhein and Nufenen to its south, Vals occupies a strategic alpine crossroads. Yet the village centre, Vals Platz, lies secluded behind two gorges—one to the north, one to the south—through which the Vals Rhine courses. Access is afforded chiefly via a single valley corridor, flanked by rocky walls that have both sheltered and constrained the settlement’s growth. Within this confined nucleus, housing makes up a mere 0.2 percent of land use, while roads and ancillary infrastructure claim 0.3 percent.

Demographically, Vals has exhibited modest growth—approximately 1.4 percent over the past decade—with foreign nationals constituting around 10.8 percent of inhabitants. The gender balance is nearly even, and the age structure reveals a community wherein roughly a quarter are younger than twenty, a third lie between twenty and fifty-nine, and the remainder are seniors. Educational attainment is notable: over 70 percent of residents aged twenty-five to sixty-four have completed upper secondary or tertiary studies, a reflection of Switzerland’s broader commitment to advanced vocational and academic pathways. Politically, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (CVP) commands the greatest support, with two-thirds of voters endorsing it in the 2007 federal election, while the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), Social Democratic Party (SP), and Free Democratic Party (FDP) trail respectively.

Economically, the municipality retains a diversified base. Primary sector activities—principally agriculture and forestry—employ approximately 23 percent of the workforce across some thirty enterprises, while the secondary sector, encompassing light industry and artisanal commerce, engages some 29 percent of workers. The tertiary sector predominates, with hospitality, retail, public administration, and professional services accounting for nearly half of all employment, a pattern conducive to both stability and adaptability. Unemployment remains low, at just over one percent, testament in part to the resilience afforded by thermal tourism and mineral water production.

Vals’s most celebrated draw is its thermal spa, Therme Vals, whose crystalline pools and angular stone pavilions stand as a testament to the mineral-rich quartzite quarried locally. Thermal springs have drawn visitors since the late 19th century, when hotels first sprouted around the 30 °C waters; yet early ventures found only intermittent success until the dramatic reconstruction by Peter Zumthor in 1996. Employing some 60,000 slabs of Vals quartzite, his austere design integrates subterranean chambers and open-air terraces, allowing visitors to commune with both stone and sky. Ownership of the baths and the adjoining hotel transferred from municipal stewardship—intended to forestall bankruptcy in 1983—to private investors in December 2012, following long deliberations among community groups and architectural advocates.

The mineral spring also yields Valser mineral water, bottled by Valser Mineralquellen AG, which draws half of the inflow, while the remaining flow sustains the thermal facilities. Elsewhere, Valserstein—a local granite imbued with mica and feldspar—sparks beneath sunlight, its glittering face a reminder of the valley’s geological wealth. Hydrologically, Vals experiences around 121 days of precipitation per annum, yielding an average 1,185 millimetres of moisture: August emerges as the wettest month, while January is the driest, though even then precipitation falls on some twelve to thirteen days.

Seasonal recreation extends beyond the thermal pools. The Vals3000 ski area ascends from the valley floor to alpine heights near the Dachberg, its eight-seat gondola and quartet of lifts—including a children’s ropeway—providing access to slopes that rank among Graubünden’s loftiest terrains. Conversely, Zervreilasee, the reservoir held by a dam on the Vals Rhine, draws hikers and picnickers in summer, while its access road doubles as an eight-kilometre toboggan run in winter and serves as a scooter route when thaw arrives.

At the periphery of possibility stands the unrealized Tower Hotel project, unveiled in March 2015 by quarry entrepreneur Pius Truffer and investor Remo Stoffel. Envisaged as a 381-metre shaft of 82 floors housing 107 rooms within a footprint scarcely larger than a tennis court, the proposal ignited spirited debate among residents—intensified by disclosures of multi-million-franc debts—and ultimately lapsed when Stoffel relocated abroad in July 2019. Though discussed in architectural forums and featured in the Arte documentary series Vom Bauen in den Bergen, the initiative now rests in abeyance.

Through centuries of pastoral labour, cultural convergence, and geological endowment, Vals has forged a singular identity: a microcosm of Alpine endurance, where Romansh and German heritage converge, where stone—quarried, sculpted, and assembled—frames human aspiration, and where thermal waters continue to offer renewal. Its meadows and hamlets speak to agricultural tradition; its spa architecture to avant-garde restraint; its ski lifts and toboggan runs to a year-round embrace of altitude. In its stone walls, its flowing waters, and its peaks that pierce the sky, Vals offers both an archive of human endeavour and an open invitation to those who seek solace amid rock and ether.