1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Moritz
ST MORITZ (in Ladin, San Murezzan), the loftiest (6037 ft.) and the most populous village of the Upper Engadine in the Swiss Canton of the Grisons. It is built above the north shore of the lake of the same name (formed by the Inn), and is by rail 56 m. from Coire by the Albula railway, or by road 4812 m. from Martinsbruck (the last village in the Engadine), or by road 30 m., over the Maloja Pass, from Chiavenna. In 1900 it had a population of 1603, 475 being German-speaking, 433 Ladin-speaking, and 504 (railway workmen) Italian-speaking, while 837 were Protestants and 743 Catholics. The village is about 1 m. north of the baths, an electric tramway connecting the two. Both are now much frequented by foreign visitors. The baths (chalybeate, sparkling with free carbonic acid) were known and much resorted to in the 16th century, when they were described by Paracelsus; they were visited in 1779 by Archdeacon W. Coxe. They are frequented chiefly by non-English visitors in summer, the English season at St Moritz being mainly the winter, for the sake of skating and tobogganing. (W. A. B. C.)