Samnaun

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Ibex Grisons

ADVENTURE ROAD, DUTY-FREE AND WINTER SPORTS

Samnaun - The Facts

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The first settlers to Samnaun, in around the year 800 AD, were farmers from the Lower Engadine, arriving with their cattle in search of new pastures. Samnaun has been inhabited year-round since about 1200 AD.Due to its unique location, Samnaun has, in many respects, developed in a very distinctive way. Certain individual features have emerged over the years which are still observable today. An excerpt from the history of the valley in the border triangle region:

Duty-free Status Since 1892

With the centralization of the Swiss customs in 1848, a customs office was also set up in Samnaun-Compatsch. The introduction of customs procedures suddenly put an end to trade with Tyrol, since all incoming goods were now subject to customs duty. This placed the Samnaun peasants at considerable economic disadvantage. Therefore, in 1892, the Federal Council decided to make the Samnaun valley a duty-free area. This status remains today, even though there has been an access road over Swiss territory since 1912. After the opening of the Samnaunerstrasse (Samnaun’s main road), it was not long before the first guest houses in Samnaun also began to appear.

The Development of Winter Tourism

Tourism in Samnaun, as in many places in Switzerland, came to a standstill during the Second World War. It was only in 1951, with the founding of the Samnaun-Compatsch Tourist Board that a new era of tourism in the Samnaun area began. In 1954, the first ski lift was built. The early 1970s saw a significant downturn in tourism, a situation which was only improved by the construction of the first aerial cable car in 1977/78 and the merger of the ski area with Ischgl, Austria. Both of these developments gave a much needed boost to the Samnaun Valley. In 1995, the world's first double-decker cable car, the Twinliner, was opened.

Samnaun’s Languages

Romansch was the original language used in Samnaun - the names of the meadows, dating back to Roman times, testify to this today. Romansch remained the most important language until the 19th century. Nowadays, a Tyrolean dialect is spoken in Samnaun, making it the smallest linguistic minority in Switzerland. Samnaun has long enjoyed a lively trade with Tyrol and many Tyrolean families settled over the years in the Samnaun Valley which gave rise to the spread of the Tyrolean dialect. Religion also had a part to play - after the Reformation Samnaun, along with Tyrol, remained predominantly Catholic.

The Samnaun Dwarfs

Between 1873 and 1892, 8 people with Dwarfism were born to 4 different families in Samnaun, all of them only about 80 cm to about 1 meter tall. The last short-statured human in Samnuan died in around 1959. The ‘dwarfs’ were considered as an attraction by guests and were often photographed. Dwarfism is due to a recessive mutant growth hormone gene.

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Guest-Information Samnaun
Dorfstrasse 4
CH-7563 Samnaun Dorf
+41 81 861 88 30
info@samnaun.ch
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