14 Extra Palatial hotels in the mountains Grand Hotel, St Moritz, c. 1907. The healing thermal springs of St Moritz had already earlier attracted patients who sought cures for their ills. They lived in comparatively simple guesthouses. The rise of tourism in the 19th century brought guests with higher expectations, and the hotels responded accordingly. This was the hour of birth for the Grand Hotels.Photo: Raetian Museum + Hotel Engadiner Kulm, St Moritz, 1894. Large palatial hotels like the Kulm, opened in 1856, profoundly changed the appearance of villages previously dominated by farming.Photo: Raetian Museum + «Dining Room» of the Hotel Engadiner Kulm, c. 1910. Hotel owner and pioneer of tourism Johannes Badrutt delighted his guests from 1879 onwards with electrical lighting – the first in the whole of Switzerland.Photo: Raetian Museum + Hotel La Margna, St Moritz, 1909. The Engadine architect Nicolaus Hartmann disliked the insensitive style of the grand hotels which, in his view, showed no consideration at all for regional architecture. His hotel «La Margna» (1906), built in a way more appropriate to his native land, was meant to prove his point.Photo Raetian Museum + Hotel Kronenhof, Pontresina, 1899. This watercolour by Johannes Weber depicts the hotel Kronenhof as a free-standing palatial building in the pure Alpine world of the Upper Engadine, seemingly untouched by humans. In reality, it stands in the midst of houses within the village.Photo: Raetian Museum + Hotel Waldhaus Vulpera, Tarasp, around 1890‒1900. The architect Nicolaus Hartmann the Elder built this hotel. When it opened in 1897 it was the quintessence of luxury. In 1989 the entire complex burned down because of arson.Photo: Raetian Museum + By the middle of the 20th century new medications made TB better treatable. For Davos this meant the end of tourism based on this and similar health issues. Former sanatoriums like the Schatzalp were turned into sports hotels.Photo: Raetian Museum + Waldhaus Flims, 1907. Opened in 1877 in a lovely location near lake Cauma the spa hotel welcomed its guests from all over the world. It was gradually enlarged by more buildings. One of its particular and popular attractions was an enclosure with marmots.Photo: Raetian Museum + Hotel Steinbock, Chur, 1908. The city of Chur, too, had its own Grand Hotel directly near the railway station. Built at a time when the ibex had already been extinct in Switzerland, the hotel impressed guests with one such rare animal, kept in the inner court. The hotel was pulled down in 1962.Photo: Raetian Museum +