Das Tor zu Thusis

Even when the Commercialstrasse provided wider lanes around 1820, the fully loaded Furgons still had to take the narrow left turn at the upper square and cross the alleys of the Old Village to get to the Nolla Bridge.

This bottleneck had long been a thorn in the side of the cantonal engineers in Chur, which is why the great Thusn village fire of 1845 – to which 80 buildings fell victim – was seen as an opportunity to radically regulate the situation.

Instead of rebuilding the old houses, the Neudorf was to be built along a six-metre-wide street with spacious pavements. The building regulations specified the distances to be maintained between the houses and the stables located at the back. Even today, the Neudorfstrasse thusis gives an almost urban flair.