The Magic Mountain

A young engineer goes up to Davos for a three-week visit to his cousin at a mountain sanatorium and stays seven years, the fever of the place and of one guest keeping him on the heights while the flatland forgets him. The map climbs from the cure-town of Davos-Platz in the valley up the funicular to the sanatorium shelf, and out onto the high slopes where a blizzard nearly ends him.

Hans Castorp

Davos-Platz

Chapter 1

Hans Castorp arrives in the valley after a long climb by train from Hamburg, meaning to spend three summer weeks visiting his cousin before starting work at a shipyard. The cure-town of Davos-Platz is the last stop in the ordinary world; from here he is carried up to the sanatorium and the flatland releases its hold on him.

Chapter 1

explicit The novel names Davos-Platz as the valley town the traveller reaches by the narrow-gauge mountain railway; the coordinates mark the Davos-Platz station and cure quarter on the valley floor.

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Hans Castorp

The funicular railway

Chapter 1

The last stage of the journey leaves the valley floor and climbs the steep mountainside to the sanatorium shelf, hundreds of metres above the town. The real Schatzalp funicular still runs this line from Davos-Platz up to the terrace of Alpine hotels; the short, steep ascent marks the passage out of ordinary time and into the closed world of the cure.

Chapter 1

explicit The sanatorium shelf sits high above the valley and is served by a funicular; the coordinates mark the valley station of the real Schatzalp-Bahn beside Davos-Platz, which climbs to the sanatorium terrace the fictional Berghof is drawn from.

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