D is for Davos, Switzerland and The Magic Mountain

Dover Press Attribution

Winter in Davos is the name of this poster by the artist, Burkhard Mangold (1873-1950).  According to his biography, he was influenced by the Jugendstil movement.  And what was the Jugendstil movement you might ask? (I did).  Jugendstil was another name for Art Nouveau, an art movement which began in the late 19th and early 20th century.  Art Nouveau included all forms of architecture, high and low art, printing, sculpture, crafts, with all of these forms rejecting the traditional art forms of the 19th century. 

Davos is one of Europe's oldest mountain resorts with emphasis on all outdoor winter sports, skiing with 45 ski lifts, sled runs, skating rinks both indoor and outdoor, and in the summer hiking and mountain biking.

Swissinfo.co  attribution

Because of its high altitude and sunny weather, Davos was originally a health resort for wealthy patients with tuberculosis.  Robert Louis Stevenson completed Treasure Island in 1882 while recuperating there, and for you Lit majors -- what famous writer used Davos as the location for his Nobel Prize winning book?    Did you guess?  Thomas Mann used Davos as his setting for The Magic Mountain.  His wife was there in 1911, with a "lung ailment"-- a euphemism for TB.  Mann who stayed nearby taking care of his children, spent three weeks there himself, which gave him first-hand material for his novel.  Writing is the perfect occupation for those whose hospital stays for tuberculosis usually meant months of recuperation.  The daily regimen included, long hours outdoors, lounging bundled up while inhaling the mountain air which was thought to be part of the cure, eating very good food, and this is one of the most unusual treatments,  spending the night in barns with cattle, inhaling their flatulence.

But Davos is not all serious and literary.  It is quite a hip location with clubs, good restaurants and beautiful people.  It was the site for the  2013 World Economic Forum.  There is more to Davos' history than I can cover here, but check out Davos' numerous web-sites.