UNESCO World Heritage - A masterpiece of railway engineering

The Albula and Bernina lines between Thusis and Tirano are excellent and technically innovative examples showing how the high alpine landscape was opened up and are among the most spectacular narrow gauge railways in the world.

The salient feature of the Albula/Bernina landscapes is the Rhaetian Railway. The Albula railway was completed in 1903, the Bernina railway in 1910. The Albula railway was recognised as a masterpiece of engineering from the outset. The Bernina railway (St. Moritz - Tirano) immediately became the model for many projects throughout the Alps and the recognised standard for several railways that were built later. Today it holds a unique position worldwide: it is the highest altitude transalpine railway in Europe and one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world.

The surrounding landscape is an essential feature of the exceptional importance of the Albula and Bernina line, emphasising the direct link to the qualitatively unique railway structures as the railway runs through a very varied, rich cultural landscape. The railway engineering structures merge with the exceptional topography in a single spectacular whole. The choice of alignment was motivated by the wish to make the route particularly striking for tourism i.e. to emphasise the attractions of the landscape. The cultural features of past and present thus interact with a natural landscape of an alpine to high alpine character and 1 of spectacular beauty.