St. Moritz

St. Moritz
Country Switzerland Canton Graubünden District Maloja
Population	5,175 (Dec 2009)[1]
- Density	180 /km2 (467 /sq mi)
Area	28.69 km2 (11.08 sq mi)
Elevation	1,822 m (5,978 ft)
Postal code	7500
SFOS number	3787
Localities	Champfèr
Surrounded by	Bever, Celerina/Schlarigna, Samedan, Silvaplana
Twin towns	Bariloche (Argentina), Kutchan (Japan), Vail (USA)
Website	www.stmoritz.ch SFSO statistics
St. Moritz
View map of St. Moritz

St. Moritz (German: Sankt Moritz, Romansh: San Murezzan) is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. The highest summit in the Eastern Alps, the Piz Bernina, lies a few kilometres south of the town.

History

Lake St. Moritz

St. Moritz is first mentioned around 1137-39 as ad sanctum Mauricium.^[2] The town was named after Saint Maurice, a Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic saint.

Although it received some visitors during the summer, the origins of the winter resort only date back to September 1864, when St. Moritz hotel pioneer, Johannes Badrutt, made a wager with four British summer guests: that they should return in winter and if it was not to their liking, he would pay for the cost of their journey from London and back. If they found St. Moritz attractive in winter, he would invite them to stay as his guests for as long as they wished.^[3] This marked not only the start of winter tourism in St. Moritz but the start of winter tourism in the whole of the Alps. The first tourist office in Switzerland was established the same year in the town. St. Moritz developed rapidly in the late nineteenth century and the first electric light in Switzerland was installed in 1878 at the Kulm Hotel and the first curling tournament on the continent held in 1880.^[3] The first European Ice-Skating Championships were held at St. Moritz in 1882 and first golf tournament in the Alps held in 1889. The first bob run and bob race was held in 1890 and by 1896 St. Moritz became the first town in the Alps to install electric trams and opened the Palace Hotel.^[3] In 1906, a horse race was held on snow (1906) and on the frozen lake (1907). The first ski school in Switzerland was established in St. Moritz in 1929.^[3]

St. Moritz in January 1931

In 1928 St. Moritz hosted the 1928 Winter Olympic Games and the stadium still stands today. It later hosted the 1948 Winter Olympic Games. St. Moritz has hosted over 20 FIBT World Championships, four FIS Alpine World Ski Championships (1934/1948/1974/2003) over 40 Engadin Ski Marathons since 1969 and over 30 Engadin Ski Marathons since 1978. It has also hosted many other events since, including some unlikely ones on the frozen lake in the 1970s and 1980s such as a golf tournament, (1979), a polo tournament (every year in February starting in 1985) and cricket (1989).^[3] St. Moritz has also been the venue for many Sailing and Windsurfing World Championships.

Since the registration of a new trademark by the tourist office in 1987, St. Moritz is also known as Top of the World.

Geography

St. Moritz has an area, as of 2006^[update], of 28.7 square kilometers (11.1 sq mi). Of this area, 28.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 19.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 8.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (44.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).^[4]

The municipality is located in the Oberengadin sub-district of the Maloja district. It consists of the settlements of St. Moritz-dorf (elevation 1,830 m (6,004 ft)), Bad (ele. 1,775 m (5,823 ft)) and Champfèr (ele. 1,825 m (5,988 ft)) as well as the village section of Suvretta.

Sport

Cartier Polo World Cup 2008

St. Moritz has been the host city for the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics. It also hosted the 1934, 1974 and 2003 Alpine Skiing World Championships. It is one of three cities that have hosted the Winter Olympic Games twice, the others being Innsbruck, Austria and Lake Placid, New York in the United States. Additionally, it has hosted the FIBT World Championships (bobsleigh and skeleton racing) a record 21 times. Since 1985, St Moritz has hosted the Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow; an annual high-goal tournament featuring many of the world's finest teams. In its current form. the tournament lasts four days and is played on a specially marked field located on the frozen lake.^[5]

St. Moritz is extremely popular in the summer months as an altitude training base for distance athletes, particularly cyclists, runners, and race walkers. Its popularity extends to the altitude, weather, world class athletics track, and availability of paths and trails in the area.

For the 1928 games, the cross-country skiing and the cross-country skiing part of the nordic combined events took place around the hills of St. Moritz.

In addition to the above sports, St. Moritz is also well known as a destination for sailing. It is the host venue for the annual St. Moritz Match Race held on lake St. Moritz. The St. Moritz Match Race event is part of the prestigious World Match Racing Tour which covers 3 continents. The event draws the world's best sailing teams to St. Moritz in a gladiatorial battle of nerve and skill on the water. The identical supplied (BLU-26) boats are raced two at a time in an on the water dogfight which tests the sailors and skippers to the limits of their physical abilities. Points accrued count towards the World Match Race Tour and a place in the final event, with the overall winner taking the title ISAF World Match Racing Tour Champion. Match racing is an ideal sport for spectators in St. Moritz. Racing in such close proximity (approx. 15m) to the Lake St. Moritz shoreline provides excellent heart of the action viewing for the audience.

Tourism

World Championships St. Moritz 1948

St. Moritz is considered the oldest and one of the most famous winter resorts in the world. Due to its favorable location residents enjoy over 300 days of sunshine a year. Every winter this alpine village hosts the "White Turf" horse race on the frozen Lake St. Moritz attended by the international Upper class.

Popular pastimes include skiing, snowboarding and hiking, and nearby there is also the world famous Cresta Run toboggan course.

The year-round population is 5600, with some 3000 seasonal employees supporting hotels and rental units with a total of 13,000 beds.

Tourist attractions

Plazza da Scoula and St. Moritz library

• The Segantini Museum: dedicated to Giovanni Segantini, a painter that lived the last 5 years of his life in Engadine painting "nature, life, death".
• The bobsled run: a very rare natural bob sleigh. It is typically up and running by mid December each year
• Viewing the glacier landscape: there are a number of notable vistas. Much can be seen by descending from Diavolezza to the Morteratsch Glacier.
• The 3300 metres high Piz Corvatsch with its ice cave and its eight-kilometer long ski slope down to St.Moritz-Bad.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Segantini Museum is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.^[6]

Weather

Demographics

Population

St. Moritz has a population (as of 31 December 2009) of 5,175.^[1] As of 2008^[update], 38.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.^[8] Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of 4.9%.^[4]

As of 2000^[update], the gender distribution of the population was 45.4% male and 54.6% female.^[9] The age distribution, as of 2000^[update], in St. Moritz is; 423 children or 7.6% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 502 teenagers or 9.0% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 960 people or 17.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,055 people or 18.9% are between 30 and 39, 864 people or 15.5% are between 40 and 49, and 820 people or 14.7% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 532 people or 9.5% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 289 people or 5.2% are between 70 and 79, there are 121 people or 2.2% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 23 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.^[8]

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 34.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (24.5%), the SP (22.4%) and the CVP (17%).^[4]

Education

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In St. Moritz about 65.8% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule).^[4]

Employment

St. Moritz has an unemployment rate of 1.38%. As of 2005^[update], there were 73 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 900 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 55 businesses in this sector. 3,501 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 468 businesses in this sector.^[4]

Languages

Most of the population (as of 2000^[update]) speaks German (58.8%), with Italian being second most common (21.8%) and Portuguese being third ( 6.6%).^[4] Originally, the entire population spoke the Upper-Engadin Romansh dialect of Puter. Due to increasing trade with the outside world, Romansh usage began to decline. In 1880 only 50.2% spoke Romansh as a first language. Romansh lost ground to both German and Italian. In 1900, 31% of the population spoke Italian as a first language, and in 1910 it was about the same. In the following years, the percentage of Romansh and Italian speakers both decreased against German speakers. In 1941 only 20% spoke Romansh, and in 1970 it was 8%. In 2000, only 13% of the population of St. Moritz even understood Romansh.

Transportation

Rhaetian Railway operates trains to St. Moritz (Rhaetian Railway station). The Glacier Express and Bernina Express trains also stop at this station.

In popular culture

Norman Foster's Chesa Futura in St. Moritz

• St. Moritz is featured in the opening scenes of The Man Who Knew Too Much, a 1934 thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
• St. Moritz was mentioned in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger as a skiing resort. Also mentioned in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.
• In the Ian Fleming novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service the villain Blofeld uses Piz Gloria, a mountaintop facility in a resort near St. Moritz, as his base of operations. The real Piz Gloria is in another part of Switzerland.
• St. Moritz is seen on the Smallville episode "Lucy" when Lois Lane's sister, Lucy Lane, is being chased on the ski slopes.
• St. Moritz is mentioned in the song Where do you go to my lovely by Peter Sarstedt and the song I Wouldn't Dream Of It by the New Zealand band Split Enz.
• St. Moritz is also mentioned in the book of the Belgian writer Aster Berkhof named 'Veel geluk, professor!'
• St. Moritz is also a brand of menthol cigarettes distributed by British American Tobacco.
• Singer/musician Panda Bear has a song titled "Winter In St. Moritz" on his self-titled album.
• Writer Paul E. Erdman mentions the town of St. Moritz in his novel The Crash of '79. Additionally, it plays host to the characters Bill Hitchcock and his fiance Ursula Hartmann during a winter getaway.

See also

• Glacier Express
• Bernina Express
• Swiss Alps

References

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.

External links

• http://www.stmoritz.ch Official website
• http://www.stmoritz-gemeinde.ch (German) (French) (Italian) (Romansh) Municipality
• St. Moritz in Romansh, German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
• Media related to St. Moritz at Wikimedia Commons

Municipalities in the district of Maloja, Switzerland Bever | Bregaglia | Celerina/Schlarigna | Madulain | Pontresina | La Punt-Chamues-ch | Samedan | St. Moritz | S-chanf | Sils im Engadin/Segl | Silvaplana | Zuoz Graubünden | Districts of Canton Graubünden | Municipalities of the canton of Graubünden