St. Moritz Station

In 1904, the Albula Railway reached St. Moritz. It was originally supposed to arrive earlier in the farming village, which had been developing into a world-class spa resort for half a century. However, the municipality opposed a station that would obstruct the view of the lake and mountains, and instead advocated for a tunnel beneath St. Moritz. The railway planners, on the other hand, preferred a location that would economically allow for an easy extension of the line over the Maloja Pass to Chiavenna. The dispute was settled by the Swiss federal government, and the station was built at its current location.

The Bernina Railway, constructed in stages between 1906 and 1910, was integrated into the existing station. After two expansions, the station building appeared inconsistent, which led to a decision to rebuild it in preparation for the 1928 Olympic Games. The railway company commissioned Nicolaus Hartmann Jr., the architect who had recently designed the Alp Grüm and Bernina-Hospiz station buildings. Anticipating his work at the station, Hartmann had already designed the massive Hotel Margna with its main façade facing the station. He unified the various station buildings into a single cube with a hipped roof, above which the clock tower still rises today. That tower had a special feature even back then: its clock hands could be illuminated electrically from the very beginning.