St. Moritz.

Title

St. Moritz.

Description

View shows the municipality of St. Moritz in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The place is named after the holy Mauritius, which is also shown in your coat of arms.

ca. 1880

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

Votive offerings, swords, and needles from the Bronze Age found at the base of the springs in St. Moritz indicate that the Celts had already discovered them. St. Moritz is first mentioned around 1137–39 as ad sanctum Mauricium. The village was named after Saint Maurice, an early Christian saint from southern Egypt said to have been martyred in 3rd century Roman Switzerland while serving as leader of the Theban Legion. Pilgrims traveled to Saint Mauritius often to the church of the springs, where they drank from the blessed, bubbling waters of the Mauritius springs in the hopes of being healed. In 1519, the Medici pope, Leo X, promised full absolution to anyone making a pilgrimage to the church of the springs. In the 16th century, the first scientific treatises about the St. Moritz mineral springs were written. In 1535, Paracelsus, the great practitioner of nature cures, spent some time in St. Moritz. Although it received some visitors during the summer, the origins of the winter resort only date back 157 years ago to September 1864, when St. Moritz hotel pioneer Caspar Badrutt made a wager with four British summer guests. This marked not only the start of winter tourism in St. Moritz but the start of winter tourism in the whole of the Alps.