St. Moritz, Alpine resort municipality in Maloja Region, Switzerland
St. Moritz sits at 1,822 meters elevation (5,978 feet) in the Upper Engadine valley within Grisons canton, framed by mountain slopes and several lakes. The settlement divides into Dorf, perched on the hillside with hotels and shops, and Bad, lower down near the mineral springs.
Bronze Age people already knew the mineral springs, and medieval travelers came to bathe in the waters long before anyone thought of winter holidays. Hotelier Caspar Badrutt invited British summer guests to return in winter in 1864, founding Alpine winter tourism as we know it.
The name comes from Saint Maurice, honored since medieval times in the local church. Today visitors gather at the frozen lake each winter to watch horse races on ice or wander through the village where local languages mix with many other tongues.
Most ski slopes start above Dorf and connect by cable car, while the lakeshore is easy to reach on foot from either part of town. The lake often freezes solid through March, allowing people to walk across it safely.
The resort hosted the Winter Olympics twice, first in 1928 and again in 1948, making it the first place to do so. The bobsled run from 1904 still operates today and ranks among the oldest in the world.
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