Jakobsweg Graubünden

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: St. John's Abbey in Müstair (Val Müstair) / Sedrun in the Surselva; the Camino Ninja map ends in Sedrun
• Length: 258.9 km
• Duration: 17 stages, averaging just over 15 km; three weeks with a rest day and a weather buffer
• Elevation: ↗ 10,216 m / ↘ 10,021 m
• Highest point: 2,606 m at km 107.7 on the Scaletta Pass, between S-chanf and Dürrboden
• Landscape: larch slopes in the Val Müstair, the high valley of S-charl on the edge of the National Park, Engadine sgraffito villages, scree and snowfields on the Scaletta, the resort town of Davos, the Schanfigg, the Rhine Valley at Chur, the Flims landslide area, the Surselva
• Operator / Waymarking: opened in 2008 by the Verein Jakobsweg Graubünden, based in Bonaduz, together with the Bündner Wanderwege trail association; signposted by SchweizMobil as regional route 43 Via son Giachen
• Traces of St. James: the Reformed St. James church in Tschiertschen from the 15th century, the Sogn Giacun chapel in Breil/Brigels from 1514; the route was deliberately laid out to pass St. James churches of both denominations
• Accommodation: guesthouse in Müstair Abbey and guest wing in Disentis Abbey, otherwise inns, hotels and B&Bs; only a few beds in S-charl and at Dürrboden
• Connecting routes: Jakobsweg Südtirol (ends in Müstair), Rhein-Reuss-Rhôneweg (shared from Disentis to Sedrun)
• Best time: July to early October for the whole route; the Surselva between Chur and Disentis is walkable from May

Overview

The Jakobsweg Graubünden is a route between two monasteries that are older than any border it crosses today. At the start stands Müstair, where a monastery was founded around 775, attributed by legend to Charlemagne; near its end in the Surselva lies Disentis, whose community began around 700. In between lies an entire canton: three languages, from Vallader in the Engadine to German in Davos and Chur to Sursilvan along the Vorderrhein, two major mountain crossings and 10,216 meters of ascent.

The route is young. It was opened and signposted in 2008, run by the Verein Jakobsweg Graubünden; today it's SchweizMobil's regional route 43. Its planners set themselves an unusual rule: as many churches dedicated to St. James as possible should lie on the route, Catholic and Reformed alike – even if that meant giving up the more scenic high trail. Honestly, though, this is a mountain trail first and a pilgrim route second: if you don't hit the Scaletta Pass in the right month, you'll notice faster than at any chapel.

Other Names

In Romansh the route is called Via son Giachen – that's also what the signposts of route 43 say; some guidebooks write Via San Giachen. In German it's the Jakobsweg Graubünden or Bündner Jakobsweg. The canton itself is Grischun in Romansh, Grigioni in Italian and Grisons in French. The towns often have two names as well: Müstair is Münster in German, Disentis is Mustér, Ilanz is Glion, Brigels is Breil, Andiast is called Andest – and Müstair and Mustér both go back to the Latin monasterium, monastery.

Who It's Ideal For—and Who It's Not So Ideal For

Ideal if you're after high mountains and art history in equal measure: Carolingian frescoes on day one, Engadine sgraffito houses, a pass above 2,600 meters, a Romanesque cathedral in Chur and a Baroque monastery in Disentis. Also ideal if you want to walk alone – you'll rarely meet pilgrims here, hikers more often. And ideal if you're coming from South Tyrol and want to cross the Alps rather than leave them.

Honestly, though, it's not for you if you expect a hostel network like in Spain: there are hardly any cheap pilgrim beds, and you'll sleep in inns at Swiss prices. Not for you if you can only go in May or late October – then there's snow on the Scaletta and many houses in the high valley of S-charl are closed. And not for you if you're not sure-footed or get nervous when the weather turns at 2,600 meters: between S-chanf and Dürrboden there's no village, no road and no train for more than 20 kilometers.

Route & Landscape

Müstair to S-chanf (km 0–91.6): From the abbey in Müstair you head up the Val Müstair via Fuldera and Tschierv to Lü (km 17.6), which at 1,926 meters was once one of the highest municipalities in Switzerland. A crossing takes you over to S-charl (km 31.5), a hamlet at 1,804 meters on the edge of the Swiss National Park, founded in 1914 as the first in the Alps. Through the Val S-charl you descend to Scuol (km 44.2) with its mineral springs and then follow the Inn upstream through the Lower Engadine: Guarda (km 61.7) at 1,648 meters, Lavin, Zernez (km 76.7) and Cinuos-chel to S-chanf (km 91.6).

S-chanf to Sedrun (km 91.6–258.9): Beyond S-chanf the climb to the Scaletta Pass begins through the Val Susauna; at km 107.7 you reach 2,606 meters. On the far side the old mule track drops to Dürrboden (km 113.3) and through the Dischma valley to Davos (km 125.7). A second mountain crossing brings you into the Schanfigg to Langwies (km 139.2), then via Tschiertschen (km 151.2) down to Chur (km 162.8) at 597 meters. Then the route follows the Rhine: Felsberg lies 0.7 kilometers off the line; via Domat/Ems and Tamins (km 175.5), near the confluence of the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein, you climb to Trin (km 179.5) and through the Flims landslide area to Laax (km 193.4) and Falera (km 197.3). Through the Surselva you continue via Ilanz/Glion (km 203.8), Andiast (km 218.5), Breil/Brigels (km 224.1), Trun (km 233.8) and Rabius to Disentis/Mustér (km 248.2) and on to Sedrun (km 257.3) in the Tujetsch.

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

We show the route in 17 stages; the distances come from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 258.9 km. The days are deliberately short, because almost every one of them has several hundred meters of climbing. If you want more, you can merge two stages between Davos and Chur or in the Surselva – but not on the Scaletta.

1. Müstair → Lü (17.6 km) — through the Val Müstair via Fuldera and Tschierv up to almost 1,930 meters.
2. Lü → S-charl (13.9 km) — crossing into the quiet high valley on the edge of the National Park.
3. S-charl → Scuol (12.7 km) — a good 550 meters downhill through the Val S-charl into the Lower Engadine.
4. Scuol → Guarda (17.5 km) — along the sunny side of the Inn Valley, 400 meters up to the sgraffito village.
5. Guarda → Zernez (15.0 km) — via Lavin up the valley to the National Park center.
6. Zernez → S-chanf (14.9 km) — gently through the Engadine via Cinuos-chel; save your strength for the pass.
7. S-chanf → Dürrboden (21.7 km) — the queen stage: some 940 meters up to the Scaletta Pass at 2,606 meters, 650 down, with nowhere to stop for food on the way.
8. Dürrboden → Davos (12.4 km) — out through the Dischma valley to the resort town.
9. Davos → Langwies (13.5 km) — second mountain crossing into the Schanfigg.
10. Langwies → Tschiertschen (12.0 km) — on the lower route to the St. James church instead of the high trail.
11. Tschiertschen → Chur (11.6 km) — almost 750 meters downhill to the bishop's city.
12. Chur → Trin (16.7 km) — via Domat/Ems and Tamins to the edge of the Rhine Gorge.
13. Trin → Falera (17.8 km) — through the landslide area via Laax to the standing stones of Falera.
14. Falera → Andiast (21.2 km) — down to Ilanz and back up the hillside.
15. Andiast → Trun (15.3 km) — via Breil/Brigels with the Sogn Giacun chapel.
16. Trun → Disentis (14.4 km) — via Rabius to the abbey.
17. Disentis → Sedrun (10.7 km) — together with the Rhein-Reuss-Rhôneweg into the Tujetsch.

Technically the route usually isn't difficult; it stays on waymarked mountain trails. But stage 7 calls for sure-footedness, stamina for around seven hours and weather sense: thunderstorms, fog and fresh snow are possible even in August, and snowfields on the north side of the pass often linger into July. In the Surselva it's the repeated climbs along the hillside that wear you out.

A Route That Takes Detours for St. James

Most pilgrim routes follow old trade roads and collect whatever churches happen to be along the way. The Jakobsweg Graubünden did it the other way around. When the association planned the route before 2008, as many churches in the canton dedicated to St. James as possible were to lie on it – and explicitly of both denominations. In the Schanfigg that cost the panoramic trail: instead of the Schanfigger Höhenweg, the route runs down through the valley so that it passes the St. James church in Tschiertschen.

The punchline lies in that word "both." Tschiertschen has been Reformed since 1530, Davos since 1526; in Ilanz the Articles of Ilanz of 1524 and 1526 gave communities the right to elect their own pastors – and with that, in effect, their denomination. The St. James church in Tschiertschen, a Gothic building first mentioned in 1405, has thus been a church without a cult of saints for almost 500 years – and still reason enough to reroute the trail. A Catholic apostle, a Reformed church, an ecumenical signpost: that's Graubünden in a single building.

A day's walk before the end comes the Catholic counterpart. In Breil/Brigels stands the chapel of Sogn Giacun, Romansh for St. James: the chapel and its wooden ceiling were built in 1514, the exterior paintings followed in 1515. Disentis Abbey, which already owned the parish church of Brigels in 1185, lies less than 25 kilometers farther on. In practice this means: ask in the village or at the municipal office in Tschiertschen and Brigels for the key ahead of time; small churches in Graubünden aren't always open, and you won't find a stamp everywhere.

Scaletta: The Pass a Road Put Out of Work

The Scaletta Pass lies on a medieval route from Chur via Davos to S-chanf in the Engadine. Muleteers carried goods over the mountains here, as the mule-track villages of Dürrboden on the Davos side and Susauna on the Engadine side, and the hospice of Chapella, still bear witness. Then came the road over the Flüela Pass, built between 1866 and 1868 – and the Scaletta lost its economic importance. In 1890 the Davos hotelier Willem Jan Holsboer still presented plans for a through railway from Chur to St. Moritz that was to run right here; what got built instead, by 1904, was the Albula Railway from Thusis to St. Moritz.

For you that's a stroke of luck: you're walking a route that traffic abandoned more than 150 years ago. There's no pass road, no kiosk and no cable car – but no way out either. Start early in S-chanf, plan to be over the pass before noon, when the summer thunderstorms roll in, and turn back if the weather turns. The exit with no shame attached: the PostBus over the Flüela to Davos.

Highlights Along the Way

• St. John's Abbey, Müstair (km 0) — founded around 775, according to legend by Charlemagne; Chapel of the Holy Cross from 785, frescoes from around 800, Planta Tower from 960; a convent since around 1200, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. On its discovery in 1894 someone wrote: „Wie staunten wir, da uns im dunklen Dachraum bei Laternenschein Freskobilder aus dem achten Jahrhundert anblickten.“ (How amazed we were when, by lantern light in the dark attic, fresco images from the eighth century gazed back at us.)
• Lü and S-charl (km 17.6–31.5) — Lü, first mentioned as "Lug" in 1466, lost three people in the avalanche winter on January 21, 1951; S-charl is a summer hamlet at the gateway to the National Park.
• Guarda (km 61.7) — Engadine village with sgraffito houses, destroyed in the Swabian War in 1499 and by Austrian troops in 1622, then rebuilt; Wakker Prize in 1975, setting of the children's book "Schellenursli" (A Bell for Ursli) by Selina Chönz and Alois Carigiet.
• Scaletta Pass (km 107.7) — 2,606 meters, the highest point of the route, an old mule track between the Engadine and Davos.
• Davos (km 125.7) — first recorded in 1213, settled by the Walser around 1280; from 1865 tuberculosis patients came in winter, Thomas Mann immortalized the resort in 1924 with "The Magic Mountain," and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner lived here from 1917 to 1938.
• Tschiertschen (km 151.2) — Gothic St. James church, mentioned in 1405, Walser wooden houses with Bible verses beneath the gables.
• Chur Cathedral (km 162.8) — the first bishop of Chur, Asinio, is documented in 451; today's cathedral was built from 1150 to 1272, with a high altar by Jakob Russ from 1492.
• Trun (km 233.8) — where the Grey League was founded under a maple tree in 1424; from 1428 its assembly met in the Cuort Ligia Grischa, today the Museum Sursilvan, which holds a piece of the old trunk.
• Disentis Abbey (km 248.2) — a Benedictine abbey since around 700 on the road to the Lukmanier Pass, crossed by Otto I and Frederick Barbarossa; Baroque complex from 1683 to 1704, plundered and burned by French soldiers in 1799, with an abbey school since 1880.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

The natural feeder route comes from South Tyrol: the Jakobsweg Südtirol ends in Müstair, just across the border at the mouth of the Vinschgau. If you walk it, you simply switch signposts at St. John's Abbey and keep heading west.

Everyone else gets off the PostBus in Müstair. If you only want to walk the second part, join in Chur – the stretch through the Surselva is lower, free of snow for longer, and reachable by the Rhaetian Railway at almost every stage town.

Continue the pilgrimage?

Yes – and without even changing routes. From Disentis you're already walking on the Rhein-Reuss-Rhôneweg; from Sedrun it continues over the Oberalp Pass at the source of the Rhine, via Andermatt and the Furka into the Goms and through the Rhône Valley to the Abbey of Saint-Maurice. That way you link the monasteries of Müstair, Disentis and Saint-Maurice in a single line straight across the Swiss Alps.

The signposted route 43 itself doesn't end in Sedrun either; it also climbs to the Oberalp Pass, leaves the canton there and leads via Andermatt into the Reuss Valley to Amsteg in the canton of Uri. Our map doesn't show this section at the moment; as far as Andermatt it practically coincides with the Rhein-Reuss-Rhôneweg.

Preparation & Practical Information

Pilgrim passport and app. As on all Swiss Ways of St. James, you need a pilgrim passport (credencial) to collect stamps along the way, get pilgrim discounts and later receive the Compostela in Santiago. It's best to order it online in advance so it reaches you in time for the start of your trip; the passport from Jakobsweg Schweiz – Compostelle Suisse costs 12 CHF (approx. 13 €) (as of October 2026). With the Camino Ninja App you have the map and track offline; the easiest way to plan the route is right in the app, where you put together your stages and plan suitable accommodation at the same time.

Season and pass. Realistically, you can walk the whole route from July to early October; in snowy years snowfields linger on the Scaletta into July, and from mid-October fresh snow can fall at any time. Before stage 7, ask at the tourist office in S-chanf or Zernez about conditions on the pass. The Surselva between Chur and Disentis is walkable from May, so if you start in early summer you can also walk the route in reverse.

Accommodation. Book ahead, especially for S-charl, Dürrboden and Lü – there are only a handful of houses there, and some close in the winter half of the year. The nuns in Müstair run a ten-room guesthouse inside the abbey, and Disentis Abbey has a large guest operation. Many towns in Graubünden hand out a guest card with your overnight stay that lets you use the PostBus and regional trains for free or at a discount – handy if you need to cut a stage short. According to our information, Disentis Abbey issues a pilgrim seal for the whole route; ask before you set off how it's currently handed out.

What the journey will cost you

Switzerland is expensive, and this route has no network of cheap hostels. Budget 80–130 CHF (approx. 84–140 €) per person per night with breakfast for an inn or hotel, and 40–70 CHF (approx. 42–74 €) for a B&B with a pilgrim rate; at Disentis Abbey rooms cost 110–130 CHF (approx. 120–140 €) with breakfast, and in spring 2026 the guesthouse in Müstair offered three nights with half board for 299 CHF (approx. 320 €) (as of October 2026).

With a picnic at lunch and a hot meal in the evening, you'll spend 100–150 CHF (approx. 110–160 €) a day. Honestly, you save the most on the days when there's nothing to buy at all: for S-charl and the stage over the Scaletta you'll need supplies from the supermarket in Scuol or Zernez anyway.

Getting Here

To the start. You reach Müstair by Rhaetian Railway to Zernez and then by PostBus over the Ofen Pass into the Val Müstair, or from South Tyrol by bus from Mals in the Vinschgau.

From the finish. Sedrun lies on the Matterhorn Gotthard Railway: to Disentis and on by Rhaetian Railway to Chur takes a good hour and a half; in the other direction you travel over the Oberalp to Andermatt and from there to the Gotthard line. The Glacier Express also stops in Disentis and Sedrun.

• Swiss rail: sbb.ch — connections and tickets, including PostBus
• Graubünden rail: rhb.ch — Rhaetian Railway to Zernez, Scuol, Davos, Chur and Disentis
• Pilgrim passport: jakobswegschweiz-compostellesuisse.ch — association and credencial