Mineral Springs

San Bernardino is a village and an Alpine mountain pass in the south-east of Switzerland, where the road from the upper Rhine valley in Graubünden crosses the Alps toward Ticino and Italy. The San Bernardino Pass lies at about 2,065 metres, and the village of San Bernardino, at around 1,600 metres on the southern side, sits in the Val Mesolcina, or Misox, an Italian-speaking valley of Graubünden. The name comes from Saint Bernardino of Siena, the 15th-century preacher who is said to have crossed the pass, and the route is one of the historic crossings of the Alps, a link between northern and southern Europe, used since Roman times, with a modern road tunnel beneath it opened in the 1960s.

The village has a history as a small spa. Mineral springs rise in the area, and from the 19th century visitors came to San Bernardino to drink the water and take cures, when the clean, high air and the cool summers were considered healthy. A few old spa buildings and hotels from that period still stand, and the memory of the springs is part of the village’s identity. Today, however, the village is better known as a base for hiking and for gentle winter sports than as a spa town, and the springs are a historical curiosity more than a major attraction.

What visitors come for now is the landscape. The village sits among larch and spruce forests, high meadows and small lakes, among them the Lago Moesola, a small mountain lake on the pass road, and the Lag de Pian Doss, a lake in a high basin reached by a hike. The area around the pass is cut by marked trails, from easy walks along the Moesola stream to long climbs to ridges and peaks. The old mule track that crossed the pass for centuries can still be walked in sections, and it gives a good sense of how travellers moved between north and south before the road. In winter, a small ski area and snowshoe trails are open.

The pass road is open in the warmer months and may close in heavy snow, though the tunnel keeps the main route open all year. Weather on the pass can be cool and windy, and thunderstorms are possible in summer, so carry a jacket and check the forecast. Public transport includes a post bus from Bellinzona and Thusis, and there are hotels and holiday homes in the village.

The area suits hikers, families and travellers who want a quiet stop on the road between the German-speaking and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland. Combine a walk to a lake with a look at the old spa buildings and the church.