CHUR, the capital of the Swiss canton of the Grisons (Fr. Coire, Ital. Coira). It lies 1,95o ft. above sea-level on the valley-floor of the Vorder Rhein in the angle between the Plessur and the Rhine, and is overshadowed by the Mittenberg and Pizokel, hills that guard the entrance to the deep-cut Schanfigg (Plessur) valley. Pop. In 1920 12,644 were Ger man-speaking, 1,871 were Romansch and 943 Italian. Protest ants numbered 9,783, and Roman Catholics 5,733. The old city is on the west, and includes the cathedral church of St. Lucius (traditionally a 2nd-century British king), which was built between 1178 and 1282, on the site of an older church. Opposite is the Bishop's Palace, and not far off is the Episcopal Seminary (built on the ruins of a 6th-century monastic foundation) . The Raetian Museum contains a great collection of objects relating to Raetia. Chur is i4 m. by rail from Zurich: it is the mee`ting-point of routes from Italy over many Alpine passes (the Lukmanier, the Spliigen, the San Bernardino) and is the centre of an active trade, par ticularly in wine from the Valtelline. Electric trains run to Davos, St. Moritz, Arosa and Andermatt.
The episcopal see is first mentioned in 452, but probably existed a century earlier. The bishop soon acquired great temporal powers, and became a prince of the Empire in 1170. In 1392 he became head of the league of God's House (originally formed against him in 1367), one of the three Raetian leagues, but in 1526, after the Reformation, lost his temporal powers, having fulfilled his historical mission (see GRisoNs). The bishopric still exists, with jurisdiction over the Cantons of the Grisons, Glarus, Zürich, and the three Forest Cantons, as well as over Liechtenstein. The guild constitution of the city of Chur lasted from 1465 to BIBLIOGRAPHY.-W. von Juvalt, Forschungen caber die Feudalzeit im Bibliography.-W. von Juvalt, Forschungen caber die Feudalzeit im Curis.chen Raetien, 2 parts (1871) ; C. Kind, Die Reformation in den Bisthiimern Chur and Como (1858) ; Conradin von Moor, Geschichte von Curraetien (2 vols., 187o-74) ; P. C. von Planta, Verfassungs geschichte der Stadt Cur im Mittelalter (1879) ; Das Burgerhaus d. Schweiz, vol. xiv. (1924) .