Bogentrakt Hostel Tour

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[{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.13092380560724579,"longitude":9.53451870000002},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"At Bogentrakt you can take the stairs or the elevator. The elevator is actually the original one from the Sennhof prison, we didn't change much but gave it the regular safety inspections of course.\n\nIf you take the stairs however: Have a look at the doors to the electric fuse cupboard. The first door to your left has a tiny hole between door and door frame.\n\nA former prison warden told us that they had hidden a tiny camera in there because they were so fed up with prisoners constantly scratching the walls with their keys. With the camera in there they could finally find out who it was.\n\nThe camera is now removed of course but the hole and the story remains.\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourCameraDoor.m4a?alt=media&token=bc9b4bc2-7ba5-4073-9a96-33950c5fa6df","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.12969447409919654,"longitude":9.53451870000002},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fcamenisch.jpg?alt=media&token=e26d5084-853c-48da-a38a-aea352d2fb97","type":"img"},{"content":"A personality that divides like no other. Probably the most famous terrorist in Switzerland. We take a look at the ‘eco-terrorist’ Marco Camenisch who was imprisoned here at the Sennhof prison.\n\nMarco Camenisch originally wanted to become a farmer, but was unable to come to terms with advanced animal husbandry and the use of artificial fertilisers during his apprenticeship, so he dropped out and moved to an alp. He joined the anti-nuclear movement in the 1970s and became increasingly radicalised. Together with accomplices, he committed two explosive attacks on high-voltage pylons and transformers of the North-East Swiss power plants in 1979 and 1980 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.\n\nThus began a spectacular story: from the escape from Regensdorf prison in 1981, in which one guard died and one was injured (Camenisch was not the shooter, as was later discovered), to the 10 years that Marco Camenisch spent on the run and in hiding in Italy. When Camenisch was spotted at the grave of his recently deceased father in Brusio on 3 September 1989 and a border guard was found shot dead shortly afterwards, suspicion quickly fell on him.\n\nHe was then arrested in Tuscany in 1991 following a gun battle with the police. An Italian police officer and Marco Camenisch himself were injured. Extradited to Switzerland, Camenisch was imprisoned in the Sennhof in 2003. He was convicted of the murder of the border guard in a circumstantial trial. His defence always doubted the authenticity of the evidence and Camenisch himself always denied the murder of the border guard. At the time of his pre-trial detention and trial, there were numerous demonstrations in solidarity with Camenisch, in which his freedom was loudly demanded, including in Chur in front of the Sennhof.\n\nThe sad result: by 2008, Marco Camenisch sympathisers had destroyed two buildings as an act of solidarity, carried out an arson attack on a multi-purpose hall, set fire to two coaches and damaged four other vehicles, and set fire to the car of a government councillor. Marco Camenisch's hunger strike and the government council's handling of it were cited as the reasons in a letter of claim.\n\nIn 2017, Marco Camenisch had served his sentence and was conditionally released. Since then, it has been quiet around Switzerland's most notorious ‘eco-terrorist’ and anarchist and his whereabouts are unknown.\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourMC.m4a?alt=media&token=e2c4a54b-472b-4144-8ca0-6afecfdf674b","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.12969447409919654,"longitude":9.53451870000002,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fvond%C3%A4niken.jpg?alt=media&token=08cf130c-da28-4b36-8254-eb865ca7d5f5","type":"img"},{"content":"The most famous and successful prisoner at the Sennhof was the author Erich von Däniken. His pseudo-scientific books about pre-astronautics (= extraterrestrials, UFOs and other extraterrestrial phenomena) are still selling today and have been translated into 32 languages. With over 60 million copies sold, von Däniken can call himself a best-selling author.\n\nBut how did Erich von Däniken come to be imprisoned at the Sennhof? Von Däniken was actually a trained chef and hotel manager and he ran a hotel in Davos in 1964. There he also worked on his first book, “Memories of the Future.” Unfortunately, he didn't pay the 8,000 franc tourist tax (we've been warned...) and was therefore arrested at the end of 1968 and then sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. He was imprisoned at the Sennhof for 18 months and was released early for good behavior. According to the prison wardens, he was one of the most polite prisoners they had ever met. Nevertheless, while in custody, Erich von Däniken was denied the chance to watch the moon landing live in 1969. It is said that von Däniken still complained about this fact to the prison authorities up until he died 2026.\n\nDuring his incarceration, his first book became a bestseller and von Däniken began work on his second bestseller, \"Back to the Stars.\" He wrote most of this in the Sennhof. When he was released from prison, the “Erich von Däniken” hype developed. His books were made into films, von Däniken produced several television shows and founded the pre-astronautical theme park “Mystery Park” in Interlaken. This attracted over a million visitors within the first 3 years, but then had to be closed due to financial problems.\n\nVon Däniken's best-known pseudoscientific theories include the idea that humanity descended from extraterrestrials who reproduced with the great apes on Earth and that well-known cultural buildings such as the pyramids of Giza or the monoliths on Easter Island could only have been created with the help of extraterrestrial astronauts.\n\nErich von Däniken's books had a great influence on, among others, the star director Roland Emmerich, who used some of Däniken's theories in his film \"Stargate\", and Hollywood director Ridley Scott, who was inspired by Von Däniken for his film \"Prometheus\".\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourEvD.m4a?alt=media&token=c9330405-e41f-4509-8fd9-8c3e72b8022a","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.1641157563245757,"longitude":9.53451870000002},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fstoffel.jpg?alt=media&token=5a3b9592-52df-4558-af4b-9e0b86121238","type":"img"},{"content":"There are numerous legends and myths surrounding the next infamous prisoner at the Sennhof. He is also known as Grisons' “Robin Hood”. We shed light on Johann Stoffel.\n\nMuch of the life of \"Stoffel\", as he was known to locals, is only known through hearsay, which makes his story all the more entertaining. Johann Stoffel was born in poor conditions in Vals in 1899. Since his mother was not married, his birth was already under a bad star. The family soon moved from Vals to Zurich, where his criminal career began. He made a name for himself as a thief but also as a burglar and escape king who skillfully outsmarted the authorities and police over and over again.\n\nHe probably stole primarily to support himself, as he was also a bit of a bon vivant who enjoyed traveling with various lovers and giving them either stolen or purchased jewelry. But there are also reports of his generosity towards the poor. He once simply left his loot in front of the poor children in Vals. Legends and a real “Stoffel cult” emerged. The comparisons with Robin Hood were obvious. In 1971 a children's book was even written about him. More or less fictitious, Stoffel steals the clothes of a clergyman in the bishop's seat after his escape from the Sennhof and begins his escape towards the Grisons' mountains, disguised as a Catholic priest.\n\nIn fact, Stoffel escaped from the Sennhof twice at the heighth of his criminal career. And even broke in once. In 1929 he managed to break into the prison director's office and steal CHF 417.63, stamps and a revolver. The break-in into the prison naturally showered the Sennhof prison authorities with ridicule and scorn throughout Switzerland. An indictment speech from 1929 attests that Stoffel committed a total of 18 thefts in Grisons alone. There were a few more across Switzerland. He never used violence against people. He immediately confessed to most of the burglaries when questioned.\n\nAfter being imprisoned again in 1931, he managed to resocialize and even achieve entrepreneurial success. He became a master tailor and then owned a flourishing uniform factory that, among other things, made police uniforms.\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourJS.m4a?alt=media&token=8df8b093-e2de-44c0-9a07-3148a8cf0989","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"longitude":9.53451870000002,"longitudeDelta":0.1641157563245757,"latitude":46.8491274169399,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FDavidfrankfurter.jpg?alt=media&token=52668df5-a205-4ecd-ae76-919470c95f8a","type":"img"},{"content":"David Frankfurter grew up as the son of a district rabbi in the former Yugoslavia and fled to Bern in 1933 due to growing anti-Semitism. In Switzerland he learned, among other things, from the press about the murder of 36 Jewish citizens in a concentration camp and about the increasing mistreatment of German Jews and supporters of democratic parties. To visit his family, he still traveled to Germany at Christmas 1934 and had to witness how anti-Semitic Germans mistreated his uncle.\n\nHe then felt obliged to send a signal of Jewish resistance against the actions of the National Socialists. Frankfurter also noticed the anti-Semitic activities of the Swiss NSDAP regional group in Davos, which were much discussed by the Swiss public at the time, and so he bought a pistol and set off for Davos with it in February 1936. There he went to the apartment of the NSDAP regional group leader Wilhelm Gustloff and shot him with three bullets.\n\nFrankfurter actually wanted to execute himself after the attack, but since that didn't work, he turned himself in to the police shortly afterwards. The following court case was of course extremely delicate for Grisons' criminal court. Numerous international journalists had to deal with the political influence of the Nazi regime; represented by their lawyers; Hearing how the court case was used to spread anti-Jewish incitement and to portray the killed regional group leader Gustloff as a martyr. David Frankfurter's defense that he committed the crime as a political murder because the fate of the Jews in Germany affected him so deeply, was not believed. It could have helped Frankfurter get mitigating circumstances. In December 1936, David Frankfurter was sentenced to 18 years in prison, which he was supposed to spend at the Sennhof in Chur.\n\nThe Grisons and Swiss authorities can probably be credited with the fact that David Frankfurter was never extradited to Germany, despite numerous interventions by the Nazi regime. So he never fell into the hands of the Nazis, even during the Second World War. Frankfurter behaved in an exemplary manner at the Sennhof and only had to serve half of his sentence. He was pardoned from prison in 1945, but was nevertheless expelled from the country and moved to Israel, where he died in 1982.\n\nAfter his release, David Frankfurter stated that he had actually toyed with the idea of ​​killing Adolf Hitler, but that this was unachievable. Gustloff was then Plan B.\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourDF.m4a?alt=media&token=97497831-8cef-4e2e-957c-e9b26dcea54d","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitude":9.53451870000002,"longitudeDelta":0.13092380560724579},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fcommunityroom.png?alt=media&token=525bbbcd-6ab7-4baa-b0b7-28b2727c3175","type":"img"},{"content":"You made it to our community room! It's located in the old tower, which is the oldest part of the building, dating back to medieval times. The tower used to be a watchtower of the medieval city walls of Chur.\n\nThe Sennhof prison hosted their common rooms in the tower as well so we thought that to be a fitting space for it too. One floor downstairs you will find our co-working space for a bit of inbetween work or a quieter study room for your travel plans. In here though is a place to relax, socialize with other guests, read a book or listen to one of our records or try competing at a game of Pacman.\n\nThe murals that you can find throughout the hostel, in the common rooms and hallways were created by local graffiti artist BANE. He's one of Switzerland's most famous street artists and was himself once a prisoner here at Sennhof prison. During his time in prison he had a lot of time to practise his drawing skills and decided to make his art his profession. After his imprisonment he stayed clean of the drugs that brought him here in the first place and became so successful with his art that you can find it all over the world, all over Chur and here at our hostel. Having a look at his murals you can get a feeling of freedom and captivity and some references on former prisoners. We are proud that he curated these colourful and humorous artworks at our hostel.\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourCommonRooms.m4a?alt=media&token=e8c75cc4-e658-4bcb-a78c-49f9329eea6f","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.13092380560724579,"longitude":9.53451870000002,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fdoors-bogentrakthostel.JPG?alt=media&token=9581bacb-394f-48eb-a36f-040332318dea","type":"img"},{"content":"Going for a walk through our hallways you can still see the history of this place.\n\nSome of the original bars remain in the hallways and on some of the windows and most notably our room doors: They are the original prison cell doors. But newly painted. Designing the hostel we wanted to achieve a mix between the history of the prison and the new modern and comfortable use as hostel guest rooms. Therefore the heavy dark blue doors were coloured in a lighter blue but besides of that remained almost the same. New door locks needed to be installed though and also they needed to be slightly changed for more privacy and for fire escape safety.\n\nSome stories are hiding behind the door windows that you can still open for some of the doors. Please feel free to do so and check out how the cells used to look before. Remember that there are guest rooms behind those doors though and don't rattle or pull on the doors as this is rather inconvenient when staying inside.\n\nInside the rooms we wanted you to feel comfortable. The rooms are not the biggest ones, so we picked furniture that can be multi purposed and we worked with quiet natural colours and materials such as wood or cotton.\n\nIt's all designed and picked by ourselves and we put a lot of sweat and tears and all of our heart into it. All beds are custom made by one of my friends who's a carpenter. We hope that enjoy it and that you get the mix between the dark, maybe scary but very much exciting prison stay and the I-Want-To-Come-Back-Here-And-Stay-Again-Because-It's-So-Comfy-Feeling.\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourHallwaysRooms.m4a?alt=media&token=1abca58f-aff7-4f14-94f8-e201fe38a049","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fmicrodouble-hostelchur.JPG?alt=media&token=66ee7f17-821c-456d-90e9-505123fe5bd6","type":"img"}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421,"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitude":9.53451870000002,"longitudeDelta":0.13092380560724579},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Fguestkitchen-hostelchur.JPG?alt=media&token=eef5b6ab-751f-4a1c-8d49-94045844d4ac","type":"img"},{"content":"On our 3rd floor you find our guest kitchen. This space was newly created as it was only hallway before. But it was the only space left where we could fit a guest kitchen in. Hence also the awkwardly placed bathroom. It was there before in the old prison so we made use of it as a bathroom for the dorms on the 3rd floor.\n\nWe know our guest kitchen is not the biggest but it still fits everything needed to cook and have breakfast as well.\n\nFun facts: The chairs and the tables were leftover furniture from the old prison. On the tables you can see hicks and scratches... Who knows what might have happened to it over the years. If you have a look between the room doors of rooms 33, 34 and 35 you can spot small hatches that you can only open with a key. Once open you can access the cistern of the toilet inside the rooms. Prisoners were not allowed to access the toilet cisterns as they regularly hid things in there or purposely blocked them and made them overflow. Therefore all toilet cisterns at the prison could be access from outside in the hallways and the hatches could only be opened with the right key. The most secured toilet cisterns of the world. When you go out towards the stairway you can see an old prison door from the Sennhof dating back to the 18th century, the very beginnings of the prison.\n\nBefore it was used as a prison the Sennhof was the Bishop's dairy farm and then briefly a soap factory as well but in 1820 it was turned into the prison that it remained for 200 years! Yes you are right: The last prisoners moved out in 2020 followed by 3 years of renovations and then we moved in and welcomed first guests on 31st March 2023. Leave your mark on our guest book paper roll next to the prison door and head back to the front desk on the ground floor for your last tour stop.","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourKitchen.m4a?alt=media&token=93581dd6-8f32-4ae0-a072-daaa1970852b","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true}]},{"address":"Bogentrakt","location":{"latitude":46.8491274169399,"longitudeDelta":0.13092380560724579,"longitude":9.53451870000002,"latitudeDelta":0.09219986310369421},"placeId":"ChIJ70w_4cfHhEcRczKYy22rieo","media":[{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FGRF03405-large.jpg?alt=media&token=019f1984-b762-47c6-ad3f-ea8fc839ee71","type":"img"},{"content":"Standing in our courtyard you can see the full complex best. The slightly darker coloured building is a new building. The old structure was turn down because it was in a bad shape. A new building in the form of the letter L was built. It houses 29 individually owned apartments with gardens now and was opened up between the tower and the building so you can walk through up into the vineyard. Yes, there was a wall between the tower and the old structure that made the prison a closed off space. The rest of the structure was kept as it is and renovated.\n\nThe hostel is located in the bow shaped part that used to contain the cells and in the tower. The bow shape is where we take our name from: Bogen means bow and Trakt means Cell block in German.\n\nOn the ground floor you also find the coolest restaurant in town the KostBar. We can recommend it for nice drinks and great locally sourced food! They have the friendliest staff in town (besides the hostel staff of course) and the sunny terrace is a great place for an aperitivo.\n\nThe rest of the building contains rental apartments, artist studios by the artist collective Sinnhof and an art gallery from the foundation Capauliana. The foundation owns the biggest privately owned art collection with art from only Grisons' artists. Giacomettis, Angelika Kaufmann, Segantinis... You name it... Behind the hostel there are urban gardening patches and the hostel garden space including an urban golf hole.\n\nSo staying at Bogentrakt should truly feel like being part of a newly opened up neighbourhood! Grab yourself a coffee from our front desk (they say we have the strongest espresso in town) and start discovering the Old Town! Maybe with our other tour \"Unlocking Chur's Old Town\"?\n\nAnd when you're out and about: Ask the locals about some stories about the old Sennhof prison! Locals got a special connection to it since it was located in the middle of the Old Town for years and almost everyone has got their own story to tell about it.\n\n","type":"text"},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2FHostelTourCourtyard.m4a?alt=media&token=39f7b9fc-290d-41cf-946c-3f652280a111","type":"audio","ttsForStop":true},{"content":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/freeguides-prod.appspot.com/o/assets%2Ftours%2Fn9m68Cy7euRfoQEOCgqU%2Ffrontdesk-bogentrakt.JPG?alt=media&token=9a3081cc-63da-484b-b4b6-d78d07ab135b","type":"img"}]}]