Davos as a health resort : a handbook / containing contributions by A.F. Bill, M.D., A. Brecke [and others] and introduction by W.R. Huggard.

Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Davos as a health resort : a handbook / containing contributions by A.F. Bill, M.D., A. Brecke [and others] and introduction by W.R. Huggard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    troops, and in part destroyed by fire; and, in spite of several successful feats of arms, the inhabitants of both valleys were eventually compelled, in 1639, to submit themselves to the Austrians. But in the year 1649 they purchased their in- dependence from Austria by a payment of 96,000 Gulden, an amount which according to the present value of money is equivalent to nearly J? 28,000. By this sacrifice, doubly hard for a community which had been devastated by war and plague, Davos and its neighbouring communes laid the foundation of their successful development. During these troublesome times, however, Davos had forfeited a good deal of its political importance. It remained, it is true, the seat of the federal government, but from hence- forward it was not necessary that the Landammann should be a Davoser. Still, several Davos families which had attained the rank of nobility, such as the Guler, the Beeli, the Buol, and the Sprecher families, continued to be held in high esteem abroad. Davosers were not seldom found holding high military positions or occupying posts as am- bassadors at foreign courts. The fine hall in the Rathaus at Davos-Platz still remains as a witness of the importance which Davos once enjoyed. Its panelling dates from the best period of the Renaissance. Unfortunately the valuable painted glass, which once orna- mented its windows, has to a large extent been destroyed. The missing portions have been filled in with the coats of arms of the most important noble families of the neighbour- hood. The hall has recently been restored with great care and artistic taste, so that it is one of the finest relics of the kind in the Canton of the Grisons. From the middle of the sixteenth century the history of Davos has been interwoven more and more, first of all with that of the three federations, and, from the beginning of