St. Moritz (/ˌsæn məˈrɪts/ SAN mə-RITS, US also /ˌseɪnt -/ SAYNT -⁠, UK also /sənt ˈmɒrɪts/ sənt MORR-its; German, in full: Sankt Moritz [zaŋkt moˈrɪts, ˈmoːrɪts] locally [saŋkt]; Romansh: San Murezzan [sam muˈʁetsən] ⓘ; Italian: San Maurizio;[a] French: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about 1,800 metres (5,910 ft) above sea level.

It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in the administrative region of Maloja in the Swiss canton of the Grisons.

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.

In 1519, the Medici pope Leo X promised full absolution to anyone making a pilgrimage to the church of the springs.

Although it received some visitors during the summer, the origins of the winter resort only date back 161 years ago to September 1864, when St. Moritz hotel pioneer Caspar Badrutt made a wager with four British summer guests: they should return in winter and, if the village was not to their liking, then he would reimburse their travel costs.

St. Moritz developed rapidly in the late nineteenth century; the first electric light in Switzerland was installed in 1878 at the Kulm Hotel, and the first curling tournament on the continent was held in 1880.

Over the same time period, the amount of recreational space in the municipality increased by 3 ha (7.4 acres) and is now about 1.15% of the total area.

[6][7] The highest summit in the Eastern Alps is Piz Bernina at 4,048.6 m (13,283 ft), located 15 km (9.3 mi) southeast of the village.

Additionally, St. Moritz has hosted the FIBT World Championships (bobsleigh and skeleton racing) a record 21 times.

Since 1985, it has hosted Snow Polo St. Moritz, a tournament featuring many of the world's finest team and played on a specially marked field on the frozen lake.

[8] 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.

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.

Every winter it hosts the "White Turf" horse race on the frozen Lake St. Moritz, attended by the international upper class.

Prominent property owners in St. Moritz included Sonja Ziemann, Gunter Sachs, Herbert von Karajan, Lakshmi Mittal, Ivan Glasenberg, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Maurizio Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Ingvar Kamprad, Helmut Horten, Giovanni Agnelli, Silvio Berlusconi, Remo Ruffini, Dean and Dan Caten, Andrei Melnitschenko, the Heineken family, Aristoteles Onassis and Stavros Niarchos.

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

The year-round population is 5,600, with some 3,000 seasonal employees supporting hotels and rental units with a total of 13,000 beds.

St. Moritz has a subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc) due to its particularly high elevation near to the tree line.

The average temperature, about 2 °C (36 °F; measured in the nearby town of Samedan), is extremely low compared to that of the Swiss Plateau.

It is also significantly lower to that of La Brévine, traditionally considered the coldest inhabited place in Switzerland.

[23] The Badrutt's Palace Hotel (Five Star) has a staff of 520 persons and is the biggest employer in St. Moritz.

[7] In the second quarter of 2016 an average of 1,062 workers commuted from outside Switzerland to work in the municipality, representing a minority of the employees.

St. Moritz railway station is situated in the centre of the town, near the lakeshore and at the bottom of Via Serlas.