Une page de destination est organisée autour du temps : quand le lieu est incontournable, quels événements le rendent tel, et comment il évolue au fil de l'année — puis la géographie pratique (aéroports, marinas, quartiers, zones hôtelières).
St. Moritz sits above a small lake in the Upper Engadine, a high, dry valley in the canton of Grisons in southeastern Switzerland, at 1,822 meters. The town holds fewer than 5,000 residents, split between the older hillside quarter of St. Moritz-Dorf and the lakeside spa quarter of St. Moritz-Bad below it. Bronze Age votive offerings found near its mineral springs show the valley's waters were known long before any resort existed, and through most of the nineteenth century St. Moritz was a modest summer spa town, visited for its air and its water rather than its snow.
Winter changed that by way of a wager. In 1864 the hotelier Caspar Badrutt bet a group of English summer guests that they would enjoy an Engadine winter more than an English one, offering to refund their travel if he was wrong; the guests stayed into spring in shirtsleeves on his terrace and returned the following winter with friends. That bet is generally treated as the start of Alpine winter tourism as a deliberate idea, rather than an accident of geography. The consequences compounded quickly: the Cresta Run, a natural-ice toboggan track to Celerina, opened in 1884, and the Olympia Bobrun followed in 1904, the oldest bobsleigh track still in operation anywhere. St. Moritz hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1928 and 1948, one of only four towns to have done so.
That inheritance still shapes the calendar. Each January and February the frozen surface of Lake St. Moritz becomes a venue in its own right, hosting international polo and horse racing in successive weeks, while the peaks above the town - Corviglia, Corvatsch, Piz Nair - carry conventional Alpine skiing. Outside those months St. Moritz keeps a second, quieter identity as a summer base for hiking, cycling and altitude training in the thin, reliably sunny Engadine air, a rhythm closer to its original nineteenth-century purpose than to its winter fame.
01Quand St. Moritz matières
Douze mois d'activité calculés à partir des événements figurant au calendrier de cette destination — l'importance de chaque événement est répartie sur les jours qu'il occupe. Les événements à l'origine de chaque mois sont indiqués en regard de la barre.
02Le calendrier ici
À venir
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22 Jan → Jan 24, 2027St. Moritz · Switzerland · Polo Snow Polo World Cup St. MoritzSignificatif
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7 FebSt. Moritz · Switzerland · Équestre White Turf St. MoritzNotable
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6 Mar → Mar 14, 2027Engadin · Switzerland · Ski Engadin SkimarathonRégional
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24 Aug → Aug 29, 2027St. Moritz · Switzerland · Gastronomie & Vins St. Moritz Gourmet FestivalRégional
Chaque événement du calendrier
S'abonner au calendrier de cette destination (ICS) · Ouvrir dans le calendrier
03Pourquoi c'est important
St. Moritz's position rests on being first rather than largest: Zermatt draws more skiers and other Swiss resorts a younger crowd, but none can claim to have invented the underlying idea that an Alpine winter was worth traveling for. In our reading, that origin is what still lets a town of under 5,000 people stage events - polo and horse racing on a frozen lake, held nowhere else at comparable scale - that resorts with larger ski areas do not attempt; the spectacle exists because St. Moritz built the stage for it a century and a half ago and has rebuilt it, literally, out of ice every winter since.
04L'année, mois par mois
05Météo par mois
| Mois | °C max. | Bas °C | Pluie mm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janvier | -1.3 | -15.8 | 29.4 |
| Février | 0.5 | -15.6 | 19.0 |
| Mars | 4.0 | -9.6 | 23.7 |
| Avril | 7.9 | -4.3 | 36.9 |
| Mai | 12.9 | 0.1 | 67.0 |
| Juin | 17.0 | 3.2 | 90.9 |
| Juillet | 19.3 | 4.7 | 86.8 |
| Août | 18.8 | 4.7 | 100.4 |
| Septembre | 14.6 | 1.3 | 73.2 |
| Octobre | 10.5 | -2.6 | 76.6 |
| Novembre | 4.1 | -7.8 | 69.8 |
| Décembre | -0.7 | -13.4 | 36.6 |
06Comment s'y rendre et se déplacer
07Où se trouvent les choses
Quartiers
Quartiers d'hôtels
St. Moritz-Dorf holds the valley's historic grand hotels, including Badrutt's Palace and the Kulm Hotel - the latter the site of the town's first Olympic events and, before that, of Caspar Badrutt's original wager - within walking distance of the funicular and the main shops. Suvretta, on the wooded hillside to the west, is quieter and more secluded, built around a small number of large hotels rather than a village center. St. Moritz-Bad offers a more moderate, spa-oriented register nearer the lake. Because the valley's total room count is modest against its winter demand, the two spectator weeks in January and February compress booking pressure across all three areas at once.
Quartiers gastronomiques
Via Serlas and the streets around the Dorf's main square carry the highest concentration of restaurants and cafés, busiest during the two winter event weeks. Mountain restaurants at Corviglia and above Corvatsch operate through the ski season for lunch traffic off the slopes. St. Moritz-Bad's dining is more everyday and less seasonal.
Institutions culturelles
Commerce
Via Serlas, in St. Moritz-Dorf, holds the town's concentration of designer boutiques within a few hundred meters of the main hotels; it is a small, dense shopping street rather than a district in the mall sense.
08Comment le lieu évolue
St. Moritz runs on two short, intense seasons separated by two long quiet ones. Midwinter turns the frozen lake into a stage for spectator sport and fills the Dorf's hotels for six or seven weeks; midsummer brings a slower, sportier crowd for hiking, cycling and altitude training. May and November, the shoulder months between them, are close to dormant, with lifts shut and much of the hospitality trade on its own break.
09Historique
Evidence of Bronze Age offerings at St. Moritz's mineral springs suggests the valley's waters were valued long before any resort existed, and the town spent much of the nineteenth century as a summer spa. Caspar Badrutt's 1864 wager with a group of English guests - that they would prefer an Engadine winter to an English one - is credited with turning the valley into a winter destination by design rather than accident; the guests stayed into spring and returned the following winter with others. The Cresta Run followed in 1884 and the Olympia Bobrun in 1904, both still operated on hand-built natural ice each winter. St. Moritz hosted the Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948, one of only four towns to have hosted the Winter Games twice. Giovanni Segantini's paintings of the Engadine's high light, made in the last years of his life in the 1890s, gave the valley a second, artistic reputation alongside its sporting one.
À proximité
Sources
- White Turf St. Moritz — official site, Verein White Turf St. Moritz official consulté 6 September 2026
- St. Moritz, Wikipedia encyclopedia consulté 9 September 2026
- Samedan Airport, Wikipedia encyclopedia consulté 9 September 2026