Preda is a small village within the Swiss municipality of

Bergün Filisur Bergün Filisur is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Albula Region in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. On 1 January 2018 the former municipalities of Bergün/Bravuogn and Filisur merged to form ...

(until the end of 2017

Bergün/Bravuogn Bergün/Bravuogn (, , in the local Romansh dialect ''Brauégn'') is a village and former municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Albula Region in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The double name (German/ ...

), district of Albula, Canton Graubünden (

Grisons The Grisons (; ) or Graubünden (),Names include: * ; *Romansh language, Romansh: ** ** ** ** ** **; * ; * ; * . See also list of European regions with alternative names#G, other names. more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton ...

), in the East of

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 ...

. The name Preda, like Prada, derives from the Latin ''pratum'' =

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

. Preda is located in the upper valley of the

Albula Alps The Albula Alps are a mountain range in the Alps of eastern Switzerland. They are considered to be part of the Central Eastern Alps, more specifically the Western Rhaetian Alps. They are named after the river Albula. According to AVE (see map), ...

. It lies on the road over the

Albula Pass The Albula Pass ( Romansh: ''Pass d'Alvra'' or , ) (el. 2312 m) is a Swiss mountain pass in the canton of Graubünden. It lies at the heart of the Albula Alps, on the watershed between the Albula, tributary of the Rhine and the Ova d'Alvra, tr ...

at 1789 metres

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

(a.s.l.) and at the north portal of the

Albula Tunnel The Albula Tunnel is the centrepiece of the Albula Railway, which forms part of the Rhaetian Railway network, in the Cantons of Switzerland, Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. With its maximum elevation of above sea level, it is amongst the hig ...

of the

Rhaetian Railway The Rhaetian Railway (; ; ), abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the RhB operates all the railway lines of the Cantons of Switzerland, ...

. To reach Preda, while avoiding too steep ramps, the Rhaetian Railway needs passing several valleys over impressive

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

s and cross-cutting the mountain in several spiralling tunnels (' in German). This allows the railway to overcome a difference in altitude of 416 metres from Bergün to Preda. The line runs from

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 ...

Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...

St. Moritz St. Moritz ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in the administrative region of Maloja in the Swiss ...

and ends at the route of the

Glacier Express The Glacier Express is a direct Panorama Express (PE) train connecting railway stations of the two major mountain resorts of Zermatt and St. Moritz via Andermatt in the central Swiss Alps. The train provides a one-seat ride for an 8-hour end-to-e ...

Infrastructures

The

Preda railway station Preda railway station is a railway station in the municipality of Bergün Filisur, in the Switzerland, Swiss Canton of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Graubünden, Graubünden. It is located on the Albula Railway, Albula line of the Rhaetian R ...

is an important crossing point for the trains on the Rhaetian Railway: It has a long double-track line and shunting area with sidings. In summer 2014, the construction works of the

began to make a 2nd tube. Since the construction of the railway line, Preda also benefits from a

hydroelectric power station Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and also mo ...

supplied with water through a tunnel from Lake Palpuogna. The Preda hamlet has a hotel, a guest and group house, a farm, and several chalets.

Geography and soil occupation

East of Preda, at the 2312-metre-high

, lies the

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

between the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

river (

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

) and the

Inn river The Inn (; ; ) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The long river is a right tributary of the Danube, being the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is the summit of Piz Berni ...

(

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

basin). The valley floor is used for agriculture. Above there are extensive wooded areas. Beyond the tree line are several alps. In the immediate vicinity of Preda, down the valley, is located the intermediate Alpine pasture settlement (Maiensäss) Naz. The place is located one kilometre west of the Preda hamlet at an altitude of above sea level in the

Albula Valley Albula (German; ) is a river of Switzerland, a right tributary of the Hinterrhein. Length: , Basin: . It flows into the Hinterrhein near Thusis. See also * List of rivers of Switzerland The following is a list of rivers of Switzerland (a ...

, at the entrance to the left side valley, Val Mulix. Today it is mainly used as a holiday resort.

Snow sport and summer activities

Sledging

The sledging Preda-Bergün and Darlux-Bergün is a popular winter sport in the area. When the

pass Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to: Places *Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland *Pass, Poland, a village in Poland *El Paso, Texas, a city which translates to "The Pass" * Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see Li ...

above Preda is closed in the winter and there is sufficient snow, the road below Preda to Bergün serves as a

toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled used in snowy winter recreation. It is also a traditional form of cargo transport used by the Innu, Cree and Ojibwe of North America, sometimes part of a dog train. It is used on snow to carry one or more people (o ...

run for

sled A sled, skid, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle that slides across a surface, usually of ice or snow. It is built with either a smooth underside or a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners ...

s (longest natural toboggan run in Europe). The sledders and their sledges are transported to Preda by regular trains and additional "sledge trains". In winter there is also a

snowshoe Snowshoes are specialized outdoor gear for walking over snow. Their large footprint spreads the user's weight out and allows them to travel largely on top of rather than through snow. Adjustable bindings attach them to appropriate winter footw ...

trail at Preda.

Hiking

In the summer, there are numerous

hiking trail A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. " ...

s. Preda is the starting point of a 7 km long railway trail to Bergün, which mostly follows the railway line down the valley.

Rhaetian Railway and the spectacular Albula line

The

(; ; ; ), abbreviated ''RhB'', is a Swiss transport company owning the largest network of all private railway operators in

. Headquartered in

, the ''RhB'' operates all the railway lines of the

Swiss canton The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the Federated state, member states of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important ...

, except two lines. The construction of the

Albula Railway The Albula railway line (; ; ) is a Single track (rail), single track metre gauge railway line forming part of the core network of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB), in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It links Thusis (Rhae ...

begun in September 1898 under the supervision of the German-Swiss civil engineer Friedrich Hennings, a pioneer of railway construction in Switzerland. The line was opened on 1 July 1903 and its extension to

started operations on 10 July 1904. Because at its conception, the Albula line was intended to be operated by steam locomotives and that their power was still restricted at this time, it was necessary to limit the slope of the railway to maximum 3.5% (

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

of 3.5 m altitude over a distance of 100 m). The ascent of the valley between

and

Preda Preda is a small village within the Swiss municipality of Bergün Filisur (until the end of 2017 Bergün/Bravuogn), district of Albula, Canton Graubünden (Grisons), in the East of Switzerland. The name Preda, like Prada, derives from the La ...

was especially problematic. There, over a distance of 5 km as the crow flies, it was necessary to overcome a difference in altitude of more than 400 m. Friedrich Hennings, the designer of the Albula line, had to devise a complex succession of curved or spiral tunnels and viaducts in order to lengthen the path of the railway by 12 km to respect the maximum value of the slope imposed by engineering constraints. Two curved tunnels, three spiral tunnels, and a number of bridges were needed to solve the engineering problem, by winding the track around like the thread of a screw. Elegant, but robust, viaducts were constructed over the valleys to connect the tunnels. Beyond Preda, the centrepiece of the line is the 5,866 m long

, which passes under the

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

between the

and the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, a few kilometres west of the

. Today, the

continues to serve several famous touristic destinations, such as

and

. The Rhaetian Railway provides services to the Preda station. Preda is on the railway line between and .

InterRegio The InterRegio, often shortened to IR, is a train categories in Europe, train category for mainly domestic train services in use in some European countries, with Swiss Federal Railways operating the most dense network. InterRegio trains are semi ...

trains deliver hourly service while Regio trains offer a more limited service between

and

. In 2008, the ''RhB'' section from the Albula- Bernina area, including

, was added to the list of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

s. In 2011, the Albula-Bernina line was the first rail line in the world to be photographed by Google and put on

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expa ...

. The line is electrified, but ''RhB'' sometimes also operates several historic (steam, or diesel) trains on the network. In 2022, to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Switzerland's first railway, the Rhaetische Bahn, supported by the Swiss train-builder

Stadler Rail Stadler Rail AG is a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, with an original emphasis on regional train multiple units and trams, but moving also into Rapid transit, mass rapid transit, High-speed rail, high speed, Inter-city rail, interci ...

, came together to run the world's longest-ever passenger train, composed of 100 cars (2,990 tonnes) stretching almost two kilometres long (1,906 metres). The record-breaking train convoy was formed of 25 "Capricorn" electric trains. It took about an hour to cover over the spectacular Albula Line from Preda to Alvaneu.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Coord, 46, 35, 18, N, 9, 46, 38, E, region:CH-GR_type:city, display=title Villages in Graubünden Bergün Filisur Ski areas and resorts in Switzerland