Churwalden is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Plessur Region in the canton of Graubünden in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It incorporates the former municipalities of Malix and Parpan.

History

Churwalden is first mentioned in 1149 as ''silva Augeria''. In 1191 it was mentioned as ''de Curwalde''.

Geography

Churwalden has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 43.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 39.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 12.9% is unproductive land. In the 2004/09 survey a total of or about 2.6% of the total area was covered with buildings, an increase of over the 1984/85 amount. Of the agricultural land, is used for orchards and vineyards, is fields and grasslands and consists of alpine grazing areas. Since 1984/85 the amount of agricultural land has decreased by . Over the same time period the amount of forested land has increased by . Rivers and lakes cover in the municipality.Regionalporträts 2017: Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 18 May 2017 Before 2017, the municipality was located in Churwalden sub-district of the Plessur district on the Rabiusa river and near the Lenzerheide Pass. The village lies in the valley between the cantonal capital

Chur '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...

and the resort

Lenzerheide Lenzerheide ( Romansh: ''Lai'') is a mountain resort in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland at the foot of the Parpaner Rothorn. The village lies in the municipality Vaz/Obervaz in the district of Albula, sub-district Alvaschein. Th ...

. offers access to the skiing area of Lenzerheide as well as Stätzerhorn, Danis, Scalottas, and Rothorn. The longest summer toboggan run (Rodelbahn) in Switzerland, long, is situated at Pradaschier. At the end of 2013 the ski resort was linked with

Arosa Arosa is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Plessur Region in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is both a summer and a winter tourist resort. On 1 January 2013, the former mu ...

by cable-car, creating the new ski resort of Arosa Lenzerheide. Since then transport passes work in both resorts. The municipality consists of the linear village of Churwalden and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Passugg, Araschgen and scattered farm houses. The municipalities of Churwalden, Malix, and Parpan sought approval from the Canton to merge into a combined municipality to be known as Churwalden, and did so on 1 January 2010.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 23 September 2009

Demographics

Churwalden has a population () of . , 18.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. In 2015 a small minority (121 or 6.0% of the population) was born in Germany. Over the last 5 years (2010-2015) the population has changed at a rate of -5.23%. The

birth rate Birth rate, also known as natality, is the total number of live childbirth, human births per 1,000 population for a given period divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registr ...

in the municipality, in 2015, was 10.3, while the death rate was 9.3 per thousand residents. Most of the population () speaks German (79.7%), with Turkish being second most common (3.9%) and Romansh being third (2.3%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 27-Oct-2009 , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 17.0% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 65.1% of the population and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.9%. In 2015 there were 879 single residents, 870 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 123 widows or widowers, 155 divorced residents and 3 people who did not answer the question. In 2015 there were 918 private households in Churwalden with an average household size of 2.17 persons. In 2015 about 59% of all buildings in the municipality were single family homes, which is greater than the percentage in the canton (49.4%) and about the same as the percentage nationally (57.4%). Of the 419 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 54.2% were single family homes and 26.7% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 32.0% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 7.9% were built between 1991 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2014 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 6.29. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.92%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:3000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1623 from:start till:575 text:"575" bar:1850 from:start till:695 text:"695" bar:1860 from:start till:632 text:"632" bar:1870 from:start till:769 text:"769" bar:1880 from:start till:807 text:"807" bar:1888 from:start till:680 text:"680" bar:1900 from:start till:620 text:"620" bar:1910 from:start till:703 text:"703" bar:1920 from:start till:696 text:"696" bar:1930 from:start till:719 text:"719" bar:1941 from:start till:758 text:"758" bar:1950 from:start till:815 text:"815" bar:1960 from:start till:877 text:"877" bar:1970 from:start till:1052 text:"1,052" bar:1980 from:start till:1138 text:"1,138" bar:1990 from:start till:1247 text:"1,247" bar:2000 from:start till:1236 text:"1,236" bar:2010 from:start till:2117 text:"2,117" bar:2015 from:start till:2030 text:"2,030"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Catholic ''Church of St. Maria and Michael'', Parpan Castle and the ''Wohnturm'' of the old Churwalden Abbey (a tower house) are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. St. Maria und Michael2jpg.JPG, Church St. Maria and Michael Churwalden Chor.jpg, Choir of the church of St. Maria and Michael Parpan Schlössli.JPG, Parpan Castle St. Maria und Michael Abtgebäude1.jpg, The Abbot's tower of Churwalden Abbey

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SVP with 30.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.4%), the FDP (16.9%) and the BDP (14.5%). In the federal election, a total of 665 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 46.9%. The 2015 election saw a large change in the voting when compared to 2011. The percentage of the vote received by the SP increased from 13.2% in 2011 to 18.4% in 2015, the SVP increased from 23.8% to 30.4%, while the percentage that the received BDP dropped from 20.2% to 14.5%. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 43.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (20.1%), the FDP (18%) and the CVP (17.6%).

Education

In Churwalden about 64% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

'').

Economy

Churwalden is a semi-touristic community. , there were a total of 862 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 102 people worked in 40 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 192 workers in 32 separate businesses. There were 7 small businesses with a total of 120 employees. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 568 jobs in 130 businesses. There were 7 small businesses with a total of 197 employees. In 2015 a total of 6.3% of the population received social assistance. In 2011 the unemployment rate in the municipality was 1.7%. In 2015 local hotels had a total of 37,210 overnight stays, of which 30.4% were international visitors. In 2015 the average cantonal, municipal and church tax rate in the municipality for a couple with two children making was 3.5% while the rate for a single person making was 15.1%, both of which are close to the average for the canton. The canton's tax rate is close to the national average. In 2013 the average income in the municipality per tax payer was and the per person average was , which is less than the cantonal average of and respectively as well as the national per tax payer average of and the per person average of .

Businesses

The ''Grischuna'' Bündnerfleisch is produced in Churwalden.

Religion

From the , 483 or 39.1% were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, while 476 or 38.5% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 20 individuals (or about 1.62% of the population) who belonged to the Orthodox Church. There were 116 (or about 9.39% of the population) who are

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. There were 17 individuals (or about 1.38% of the population) who belonged to another church (not listed on the census), 89 (or about 7.20% of the population) belonged to no church and/or were agnostic or atheist, and 35 individuals (or about 2.83% of the population) did not answer the question.Graubunden Population Statistics
accessed 21 September 2009

References

External links

Official website

The sledge run at Pradaschier
{{Authority control Municipalities of Graubünden Cultural property of national significance in Graubünden