by The historic Swiss resort of St Moritz, recognized around the world as the mothership of alpine luxury, has welcomed a sparkling new five-star hotel, Grace La Margna, ahead of the winter season, increasing its numbers to six stellar accommodations.
Following a €94m (£81m) renovation, the hotel has gone from a four-star family property to the first five-star hotel to open in the resort since 1913. And it’s causing quite a stir.
St Moritz has been welcoming visitors to its healing waters since the Bronze Age and rightly claims to be the birthplace of winter tourism, thanks to a bet made by Johannes Badrutt, a local hotelier, in 1864. Following Badrutt’s revolutionary four-guest proposal Englishmen who visit St Moritz in both winter and summer, the upper class began a now traditional migration to this lakeside town in Switzerland’s mountainous Engadine valley.
These playful visitors set the tone for St Moritz with lavish costume parties, snow polo games and ice cricket tournaments, and the worrying custom of making homemade sleds to fly down the town’s icy streets.
Thanks to his patronage, the remote town became home to a handful of grand five-star hotels in 1913, attracting famous devotees from Charlie Chaplin and Errol Flynn to Robert de Niro and Sir Norman Foster, via Brigitte Bardot and Gunther. Sachs, her third husband. . As Sachs’s son, the artist and designer Rolf, says: “St Moritz has always attracted eccentrics with a certain soul: sporty, fun and elegant. “It’s a place where you can escape from real life and be a little childish.”
All of this rich heritage is being channeled into Grace La Margna by David Frei, the hotel’s 37-year-old Swiss general manager. Wearing sporty chinos, a casual blue jacket and white leather sneakers, Frei embodies the next phase in St Moritz’s evolution. Forget dinner jackets and quiet bars illuminated by sequined evening dresses – Frei’s vision is to offer fresh, approachable service, with the joy of St Moritz.
Controversially, Grace La Margna is the first five-star hotel in St Moritz to remain open 365 days a year since the post-war period. It’s a bet that seems to be paying dividends. When I checked into the hotel in early September, the phones were ringing off the hook with last-minute bookings from guests looking to take advantage of the late summer sun only to discover that neighboring Kulm, Kempinski and Carlton were closed for the season.
Instead of rushing headlong into a first operational winter with rookie staff and an endless list of obstacles, Grace La Margna has taken a decade to develop. Frei has been omnipresent at the property during the two years of reconstruction and has surrounded himself with a team of young, international staff whose dynamism and sense of humor he values more than experience.
Frei’s considered approach is appropriate for a hotel that has been a landmark in St Moritz since it was designed in 1906 by renowned architect Nicolaus Hartmann for the city’s then mayor. Hartmann is a favorite in St Moritz and has designed many of its iconic buildings, including the train station, the Engadiner Museum and the Segantini Circular Museum, with his characteristic use of traditional Graubünden styles.
La Margna, which sits between the train station and the Carlton Hotel on the winding Via Serlas, was sold to the Greek-owned Grace Hotel group in 2013, but the plans fell through, leaving a site with an uncertain future for almost a decade. decade. .
To local relief, the renovation of the Hartmann building and the creation of an adjoining wing has transformed La Margna from a landfill into an iconic landmark. With stone and tan-painted exterior walls pierced by arched windows on the ground floor and small windows framed by reddish wooden shutters above, Hartmann’s hotel features its original adornments, including projecting bay windows and window guards ornate wrought iron and gold.
His vision has also been preserved inside, with spectacular groin-vaulted ceilings from which his original wrought-iron chandeliers hang, and lake-view rooms framed by engraved stone columns and decorative wood panels.
While most hotel bars in the city are dimly lit, Grace La Margna’s N/5 The Bar is flooded with light thanks to large arched windows, with soft gray walls contrasted by white cornices and columns painted with Hartmann leaf motifs.
It is elegant, fresh and casual and the attention to detail is remarkable. Each item has been carefully considered and often locally sourced, from the Sknife steak knives with the restaurant’s subtle logo to the herbal toiletries created exclusively for the hotel by Feuerstein, the local cosmetics brand .
When Grace La Margna strays from local produce, she often buys British products, such as the house sparkling wine from Gusbourne Estate in Kent. The property also worked with Divercity Architects in London to create the hotel’s elegant new Grace Wing. Carved from sand-colored stone, the cubist development blends effortlessly with Hartmann’s original home, creating a sense of intimacy that’s surprising considering everything it contains: three distinct restaurants, a full-service spa, and a ski shop to boot.
Guests can now choose between the contemporary design of the Grace Wing’s 27 rooms, with their floor-to-ceiling windows and minimalist interiors, or the more mid-century feel of the La Margna wing’s 47 rooms.
Over a dinner of Mediterranean-spiced prawns, fragrant spaghetti and vongole, and succulent pork fillet at The View restaurant, my dining companions included a pair of Swedish supermodels, an English/Asian couple (the former was celebrating her big birthday ) and a table of local friends. Originally from Russia and Brazil.
Everything was very restrained until the birthday boy was tempted to go to the bar to have one of master mixologist Mirco Giumelli’s infamous cocktails. The city’s most talked about spot kicks off the winter season in the Swiss Alps in five-star style.
I need to know
Double rooms at Grace La Margna cost from CHF950 (£858) per night during the winter season, including breakfast. Fly into Zurich Airport and transfer directly to St Moritz Train Station in 3 hours 20 minutes.
Gabriella was a guest of Grace La Margna and Swiss Tourism.
