Flims
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| Flims | ||||||||||
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| Population | 2,568 (December 2004) | |||||||||
| - Density | 51 /km² (132 /sq.mi.) | |||||||||
| Area | 50.46 km² (19.5 sq mi) | |||||||||
| Elevation | 1,081 m (3,547 ft) | |||||||||
| Postal code | 7017-7019 | |||||||||
| SFOS number | 3732 | |||||||||
| Surrounded by | Elm (GL), Laax, Pfäfers (SG), Sagogn, Trin, Valendas, Versam | |||||||||
| Website | www.gemeindeflims.ch | |||||||||
  Flims
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Flims (Romansh: Flem) is a municipality in the district of Imboden in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Flims is the original capital of Switzerland. The town of Flims is dominated by the Flimserstein which you can see from almost anywhere in the area.
Originally growing as a summer spa town in a distinctly wind sheltered and wide open area, especially since the building of big Hotels from 1877 on, it is nowadays also famous for winter sports (mainly skiing and snowboarding) and is now part of the Weisse Arena resort which combines the formerly separate resorts of Flims, Laax and Falera. It is regular host to international competitions such as the FIS World Championship in skiing and the Burton European Open in snowboarding. In 2004 the resort was featured in the popular Xbox snowboarding video game, Amped 2, and then in 2005 in the sequel Amped 3 on the Xbox 360. Due to the easy access the Weisse Arena cable-cars provide to the mountains, the town has become a popular winter and summer tourist locale.
Into the 1990s, Flims dairymen delivered their milk to a dairy store in town from which villagers collected their raw milk daily. The practice was forever changed with the introduction of milk trucks that now carry the local product out of town to be pasteurized.
The small, quiet village was traditionally a winter home for dairymen whose animals grazed on the lush green slopes of summer. Cabins reminiscent of Heidi still dot the hillsides and ski slopes of Weisse Arena. The dairymen's winter homes are easily identified by their structure which includes stalls on ground level, home on upper level. The style allowed for rising heat from the animals to help heat the home during bitter winter months.
Today Flims is a year round resort popular not only with winter sports of snowboarding, cross country skiing, downhill skiing and sledding, but also summer sports including hiking, rock climbing, paragliding, mountain biking and swimming in Caumasee, a spring-fed, iridescent-blue-water lake. There are annual figure skating camps run by Viktor Kudriavtsev and Marina Kudriatseva. Skaters who have been regulars at the camps include Swiss national team members Jamal Othman, Sarah Meier, and Stephane Lambiel, as well as international skaters Evan Lysacek, Gregor Urbas, Karel Zelenka, Kiira Korpi, and Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Tourism
The Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flims.
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