Hotel Saratz
The Hotel Saratz is a traditional 4-star superior hotel on Via da la Staziun 2 in Pontresina in the Upper Engadine .
overview
In 1865, a traditional Engadine farmhouse was expanded into the Pension Saratz and, in the Belle Epoque, expanded into a hotel in 1875. Under the management of four generations of the Saratz family, as a member of the "Hotels de tout Premier Rang Suisses" (today " Swiss Deluxe Hotels "), it has numerous important names from business , science , art , politics and diplomacy from all over Europe and overseas Regular guests recorded. In the absence of a successor in the family, the hotel was leased for the first time in 1973 and was run under the name “Atlas” as a 3-star hotel according to different principles and expanded for winter operation for the next 21 years.
Over the years, the house was in need of renovation and various defects and lack of comfort led to a 2-star devaluation. In the 1990s , the fifth generation of the Saratz family invested around 50 million francs in the total renovation. The total renovation of the existing substance of the house as well as the expansion with a new building was planned and implemented with the architect Hans-Jürg Ruch and the Zurich architect Pia Schmid .
Historical background
First turn of the millennium
The surname Saratz can possibly be traced back to the Saracens who in the 9th and 10th centuries over the Alps to Switzerland, including Chur , St. Gallen and the Engadine village of Pontresina , which seems to owe its name to the Saracens . The place name indicates that the ancestors of the Saratz family were among the founders of Pontresina or at least had something to do with the construction of the Saracen Bridge there.
1865-1875
In the middle of the 19th century, Gian Saratz , the founder of the Hotel Saratz, was one of those Engadin people who set out to seek their fortune as a confectioner (pastry chef) all over Europe . As a made man, he returned from Normandy to his home village of Pontresina, took over the post of Landammann at the age of forty and moved into his Engadine farmhouse opposite the church of San Niculò with his family. Landammann Saratz met the German painter Wilhelm Georgy , who was commissioned to document the Engadine Alps for a nature magazine. He lived in a nearby hotel and told Saratz how sorry he was to be alone at night. Saratz took Georgy into his own family as host for the next two years. Saratz took advantage of the emerging tourism in the Engadine and in 1865 expanded the hay barn of his house and set up a guesthouse with guest rooms and breakfast service in it.
1875-1900
The managing director of Garni Saratz, as the guesthouse was called, was Gian's oldest son Pepi. In addition to initially mainly long-term guests, the demand for guest beds available for a short time also increased. In 1875 the pension was enlarged for this reason. The main building, the Chesa Veglia (old house), was extended by a three-story extension with a representative dining room, additional guest rooms and the associated hotel kitchen. In addition, the Chesa Nuova (new house), a five-storey new building with a vestibule, three floors with guest rooms and extensive basement rooms was built. The hotel became the Hotel Saratz.
Pepi Saratz left the unpopular pastoral profession and took over the journal, i.e. the financial one, in the hotel. With the further tourist development of the Engadine, the Hotel Saratz also continued to grow. In 1880 the Chesa Veglia was raised another floor and in 1890 a tennis court was built in the hotel garden. In 1896, the Chesa Nouva was expanded, so that it then had four floors with guest rooms.
1910-1914
In the run-up to the First World War , in 1910 the intermediate wing between Chesa Veglia and Chesa Nouva was the last of the existing buildings to be raised by another floor. A year later, the entire hotel underwent a complete renovation inside and out and the Chesa Nouva was expanded to include a fourth floor with guest rooms. In addition, a second bathroom was installed on each floor. And the hotel now had a water-powered lift, which consisted of a passenger cabin and a one-and-a-half meter high goods cabin hanging below. Another technical pioneering achievement was the supply of electricity , thanks to the amalgamation of some innovative hoteliers who had built their own hydropower plant in the Morteratsch area and were thus able to supply their houses with their own electricity.
In 1912 the complex was to receive a fourth building on the valley side, with huge dimensions and no less than twelve floors. The owners of the neighboring Hotel Bellavista (now Hotel Kronenhof ) objected to this, as it would have blocked their hotel guests the entire view of the Val Roseg. Although the Hotel Saratz won a legal dispute, the huge project was never built, because the judgment of the federal courts came only after the outbreak of the First World War.
1919-1945
After the First World War, the tourism business picked up again and in 1926/27 the rooms of the Hotel Saratz were equipped with running water in two stages. In 1932 the hotel was the first and only hotel in Pontresina to be included in the “Groupement des hôtels de tout premier rang de Suisse”, which included hotels such as the Suvretta House , the Palace, the Kulm and the Carlton . In the same year, the hotelier of the next generation Gian Pepi Saratz graduated from high school in Chur, graduated from the hotel management school in Lausanne and served as the only male descendant and regular holder in the hotel business. With the outbreak of the Second World War , tourism in the Engadine was also hit to the core.
1945–1974
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Gian Saratz, who has been running the Hotel Saratz in the third generation since 1895 after the death of his uncle Pepi Saratz, founded Hotel Saratz AG. At this point in time, Gian Pepi Saratz, the fourth generation of the family members, took over the management of the hotel. Under his aegis, the hotel flourished again over the next two and a half decades. In the mid-1950s, a dance hall was opened on Via Maistra the Sarazena.
Almost at the same time, the Hotel Saratz got its first washing machine . Up to now, the laundry had to be washed by hand with cold water from a spring flowing past the Flaz below the hotel and hung up to dry before it was then carried up to the hotel, where it was carried out in the basement by a gasoline (petrol) operated ironing machine was smoothed. In 1960 the first heated outdoor pool in the Engadine was added.
1974-1995
Since after Gian Pepi Saratz no family member could be enthusiastic about the hotel business (all four sons had taken up academic professions), the hotel was set up for winter operation and leased to the Zurich Atlas Group, run by Duri Bardola from Pontresina. It wasn't until 1974 that the hotel opened in winter for the first time. This change in concept meant that the house was run under the name “Atlas” as a 3-star hotel according to changed principles for the next 20 years or more and, in the absence of further investments, was retained in its old substance.
Although the new name Hotel Atlas continued to be extremely popular and, under the management of the three directors Wagner, Lehmann and Lips, enjoyed a loyal clientele, it was in need of renovation over the years due to the most intensive use. The deficiencies in terms of the standard of construction ultimately led to the downgrading.
1995-2010
After many years of discussion, the fifth generation made the decision to invest more than 20 million Swiss francs and run the Hotel Saratz under the management of Gian Paul Gut and Dr. To bring Nuot P. Saratz to a new shine. The lease contract with the Atlas Group was not renewed when it expired and the management was handed over to Adrian Stalder and the Plattner Gerber couple, who ran the hotel on behalf of the owner family from October 1995 and carried out the renovation and conversion with the active participation of the owners' representatives of the hotel complex as well as all operational changes planned and carried out. The Engadin architect Hans-Jörg Ruch was responsible for the structural issues and carried out the extensive renovation of the old hotel complex and the construction of the new "Ela Tuff" wing with 63 additional rooms. The owner family brought in the well-known Zurich architect Pia Schmid to design the interiors with the combination of old and new. The Pitschna Scena bar / restaurant was built in the main building, Chesa Veglia. From 2000 onwards another 20 million Swiss francs were spent. A wellness hotel was created with the Sarazenenbad. In addition, an underground car park was built with 60 parking spaces. In the summer of 2007, the now more than 130-year-old parent company, Chesa Nouva, underwent a major overhaul. At the same time, the Chesa Veglia, now serving as a staff house, was also completely renovated and equipped with two new seminar rooms and 14 modern staff rooms. The Chesa Niculò with 18 apartments was built as an additional employee residence. The in-house children's play paradise was renewed and the children's offer was supplemented with a new play room for young people, and finally a number of new operating rooms were created in the Chesa Punt ota residential complex adjacent to the hotel, whose apartments were used to finance the new investments. The latest innovation followed at the end of December 2008, the opening of an exclusive AVO cigar lounge, which was the first of its kind to be set up in Graubünden with the smoking ban . For a new technical process, a 1,500 meter deep geothermal borehole was created and expanded in order to heat the entire hotel complex with two heat pumps .
literature
- Isabelle Rucki: Hotels in Pontresina. Cantonal Monument Preservation, Chur 1984/85, pp. 22–31.
- Isabelle Rucki: The hotel in the Alps. The history of the Upper Engadine hotel architecture from 1860 to 1914. Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-250-50108-5 , p. 170.
- Isabelle Rucki: The hotel in the Alps. The history of the Upper Engadine hotel architecture from 1860. hier + now, Baden 2012, ISBN 978-3-03919-255-7 , pp. 270 and 238–240.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brief history of the Hotel Saratz, brochure 2010
Coordinates: 46 ° 29 '35.09 " N , 9 ° 54' 5.87" E ; CH1903: 789 066 / 152,053