Viamala Gorge

Viamala means bad road, and the name is medieval and literal: the Hinterrhein has cut a gorge some three hundred metres deep and in places only a few metres wide, and getting traffic through it toward the Splugen and San Bernardino passes was the hardest part of one of the main north-south routes across the Alps. Mule paths were blasted and rebuilt repeatedly; a stone bridge of 1739 still spans the narrows. A stairway of three hundred and twenty-one steps drops from the visitor centre to galleries above the water, where the walls close in and the river runs green and fast in a channel it has polished smooth. Modern road and rail now pass in tunnels above.

What you actually see

• A 300-metre slot - walls closing to a few metres above the river.
• A 1739 stone bridge - the surviving span across the narrows.
• 321 steps down - the stairway to the galleries by the water.
• The medieval trade route - the stretch that gave the road its bad name.

When to go

April to October. Two hours.

Honest expectations

The stairway closes in winter and after heavy rain. It is 321 steps down and the same back up, wet and slippery. The gorge is dark, which makes photography hard. The visitor centre sits beside a busy road.

Nearby

Thusis is north; the Roffla gorge and the San Bernardino road are south.