A century ago, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the German expressionist, acquainted the world with Davos through striking drawings and landscapes of his adopted home. In stark, monochrome woodcuts, he depicted bushy-haired mountain men tending their flocks. Arresting oils showed snowy peaks towering over harsh natural surroundings. Only an occasional, softer work singled out a commanding local feature such as the church tower or railway viaduct.

Today’s Davos would leave Kirchner aghast. The gaunt farmers have been replaced by entrepreneurs; the alpine clinics where he, Thomas Mann and others recuperated have become hotels. And this small mountain village, once isolated in winter, has become the biggest town in the Alps with almost 13,000 inhabitants.