Modern Davos is a metropolis, the highest town in the Alps at 1550m above sea level, and offers a wide range of attractions: the leading alpine centre for conferences and seminars (the World Economic Forum is one of dozens of conferences that take place here); home to (arguably) Switzerland’s greatest ice hockey club; over 150km of winter walking paths and it’s the site of Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain without even mentioning 110km of cross-country ski trails, and 340km of skiable pistes.
But Davos began as a health resort, a place where the sick could come to convalesce. What made (and continues to make) Davos unique, is its altitude. It is said that bacteria struggle to stay alive, let alone to spread, above a certain altitude (around 1400m), which means that the clear, clean air of the flat Landwasser valley in which Davos lies, is ideal for people recuperating from certain types of illness, in particular lung diseases such as tuberculosis.
Conan Doyle had heard about the healing properties of the air in Davos, and brought his wife, herself a TB sufferer, to relax here. Back then there were upwards of 50 ‘Sanitaria’, which is the German word for a care home. Nowadays there are only half a dozen left, since the rise of penicillin and other bacteria-beating drugs; but back then, the rest homes were full of wealthy Americans and Britons, looking for a rest cure.
In Conan Doyle’s story ‘The Final Problem’, he mentions a woman recently arrived in Meiringen ‘in the last stage of consumption. She had wintered at Davos Platz and was journeying now to join her friends at Lucerne…’ The lady does not actually exist, but is a creation of Moriarty’s, designed to bring the conscientious Watson back to Meiringen, leaving Holmes alone for a final duel at the Reichenbach Falls. However, the woman could easily have been someone Conan Doyle met or heard of while holidaying in Davos, during his wife’s convalescence.
Much has been written of Conan Doyle’s adventurous spirit, and of his engaging in ‘extreme sports’ and being a pioneer of skiing. There is a story here, too, that, bored one day, he fell into conversation with some local guides, who were discussing the ‘new’ sensation, brought over from Norway, of walking around on planks of wood in the snow, so that one didn’t sink up to one’s waist. Between them, they mulled over the possibilities, and decided to see if they could use them to travel downhill. They ended up walking up the Schatzalp, the Magic Mountain where Thomas Mann based his novel, and skied down into Arosa the other side, which, according to the Davos locals, brought tourism to Arosa!
Today, with hundreds of skiers, climbers, conference-goers and walkers bustling all around the busy town of Davos, it’s worth remembering how it must have looked a century ago during Conan Doyle’s visit, and wondering what he would have thought of the town today. If he were alive and well, he would probably be up there in the mountains, skiing down an alp!
Blog by Stephen Sanders, Inghams Representative in Davos, Switzerland.