Rhätische Bahn RhB postcard box

Since 1889, fascinatingly different on the move. The decision of transport policy in 1869/71 in favor of the Gotthard railway was a severe blow to the canton of Graubünden. With the opening of this international railway line in 1882, the mountainous canton fell into a deep depression: practically overnight, a significant source of income vanished. The once-thriving trade across the Alpine passes of Julier, Septimer, Splügen, and Bernhardin had meant prosperity and earnings for a large part of the population since the Middle Ages. It was a Dutchman who shook the grieving people of Graubünden awake. Willem Jan Holsboer's idea of a railway in Graubünden was convincing. In 1887, he succeeded in founding, financing, and starting the construction of the first railway line in Graubünden, the narrow-gauge railway from Landquart to Davos, which was opened in 1889. Graubünden owes the realization of this efficient mountain railway to his pioneering spirit.