This is a list of the highest

paved road A road surface (British English), or pavement (American English), is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, hoggin, cob ...

s in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It includes paved roads in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

that are over long and whose culminating point is over above sea level. This height approximately corresponds to that of the highest major settlements in the country.The highest towns with over 1000 inhabitants are St. Moritz (1,822 m),

Silvaplana Silvaplana ( Romansh: ) is a municipality in the Maloja Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden and the name of a lake in the municipality. History The first sign of a settlement in the borders of the municipality are some Roman-era broken pi ...

(1,815 m),

Pontresina Pontresina ( rm, Puntraschigna) is a municipality in the Maloja Region in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. History and name Pontresina was first mentioned in medieval Latin documents as ''ad Pontem Sarisinam'' in 1137 and ''de Ponte Sar ...

(1,805 m) and

Saas-Fee Saas-Fee () is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The village is situated on a high mountain plateau at 1,800 meters (5,900 feet), surrounded ...

(1,803 m). Some of the listed roads are closed to motorised vehicles, although they are normally all accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. These mountain roads are popular with drivers, bikers and cyclists for their spectacular scenery and are often the highlights of bicycle races such as

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

and

Tour de Romandie The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs through the Romandie region, or French-speaking part of Switzerland. The competition began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling. I ...

. Many of them are also served by public transport, the main transport company being

PostBus Switzerland PostAuto Switzerland, PostBus Ltd. (known as in Swiss Standard German (), in Swiss French (), in Swiss Italian (), and in Romansh () is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Swit ...

. As the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

lies at approximately 2,000 metres in the Alps, almost all the upper sections of the listed roads are in the

alpine zone Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated alpine climate, harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alp ...

, where the main form of precipitation becomes snow. Most of these roads are closed in winter, although important road links such as the Simplon remain open through the year. This list does not include any motorway as the three highest motorways (

San Bernardino Tunnel The San Bernardino road tunnel is a road tunnel in the canton of Graubünden in south-eastern Switzerland. It runs under the San Bernardino Pass between the town of San Bernardino and the town of Hinterrhein, and forms part of the A13 motorway ...

, Gotthard Road Tunnel and Vue des Alpes Tunnel) are below 1,700 metres. For a list including only road passes, see

list of highest road passes in Switzerland This is a list of the highest road passes in Switzerland. It includes passes in the Alps and the Jura Mountains that are over above sea level. All the listed passes are crossed by paved roads. These are popular with drivers, bikers and cyclis ...

List

References

{{reflist *

Swisstopo Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (in German language, German: ''Bundesamt für Landestopografie''; French language, French: ''Office fédéral de topographie''; Italian language, Italian: ''Ufficio fed ...

topographic maps (1:25,000)
Quäldich.de
(German) * Lists of tourist attractions in Switzerland

List

See also

References