A Storybook Schloss in St. Moritz

CHECKING-IN TO | CABANA TRAVEL | WORLD OF CABANA

For over 100 years, Badrutt's Palace has enchanted St. Moritz, its turrets rising above the Alpine resort like a fantasy schloss styled by Wes Anderson. Camilla Frances checks-in to the fabled hotel - whose former guests include Marlene Dietrich and Alfred Hitchcock - for the warmest of Swiss welcomes and a tour of the striking new Serlas wing, designed by Italian architect Antonio Citterio.

BY CAMILLA FRANCES | CABANA TRAVEL | 25 FEBRUARY 2025

Designed in the 19th century to evoke the romanticism of the Grand Tour, Badrutt's Palace has been continuously helmed by one family © Paul Thuysbaert.

If you’ve ever been to St. Moritz, it’s more than likely you’ve been enchanted by Badrutt’s Palace. For over 100 years, this glorious grand dame has presided over the Alpine resort, her green turrets and red windows rising above Lej da San Murezzan like a fantasy schloss styled by Wes Anderson. Designed in the 19th century as a fairytale-style chateau - to evoke the romanticism of the Grand European Tour for prospective well-heeled guests - and continuously helmed by five generations of one family, Badrutt's Palace is an integral part of the St. Moritz story, and a feature of any well-planned Engadin itinerary.

Francis Sultana always makes time for his favorite cocktail (a piscine with Brut champagne and lots of ice, whatever the weather) at the hotel's famous Renaissance Bar. For those who have not had the pleasure, it's a nostalgic, sumptuously cozy spot where the barmen will mix your spirits, hand-select your cigars and keep your secrets until the small hours.

Indeed, the entire hotel is full of spaces like this - from a hidden wine cellar to its basement social club - and, one imagines, a century of secrets too. Opened in 1896 by Caspar Badrutt - the son of Johannes Badrutt, who notably founded winter tourism in St. Moritz following a bet - the hotel’s rooms, restaurants and bars have hosted the great, the good and the glitterati. The Palace’s list of former guests reads like the Hollywood Hall of Fame: Coco Chanel, Marlene Dietrich, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, John Lennon and Al Pacino, to name a few. All have rested their heads and wet their whistles here.

Yet time and taste marches on, so any self-respecting hotelier - especially those at the top - must innovate to avoid the comfortable creep of complacency. This year, Badrutt's Palace is celebrating significant innovation. Although the 155-room hotel’s footprint was already considerable, the Palace has been undergoing a serious augmentation over the last couple of years, heralding a new and expanded chapter in this well-told Swiss tale.

The view of Badrutt's Palace from Antonio Citterio's just-opened Serlas wing, which has added 25 suites to the hotel © Steve Herud.

The author: Italian architect and St. Moritz regular Antonio Citterio, who for years had walked past an unprepossessing, but fantastically located, building just across the road from Badrutt's Palace. Each time he passed, Citterio would imagine - as architects tend to do - exactly what he’d do should he ever get his hands on it.

And so it followed that after a series of fortuitous conversations, and the purchase of the building by Badrutt’s Palace, Citterio was given the green light to transform the site, brimming with potential and opportunity. The result is the just-opened Serlas Wing, a six-storey addition to Badrutt's Palace, creating 25 new suites where - I can confirm after a site visit last year - no expense or detail has been spared.

Citterio’s inspiration for the new wing was St. Moritz itself, the spirit of Badrutt’s Palace and the natural beauty of the Engadin landscapes. The Dorato Valmalenco stone for the new wing’s façade was sourced locally, as was the wood for the cantilevered roof structure, while the shape of the deep, carved-in windows references traditional Engadin architecture. The portico even connects seamlessly with the neighboring buildings. Inside, the focus on high quality craftsmanship continues with bespoke architectural features, furniture from B&B Italia and walls indulgently lined with Loro Piana fabrics.

Citterio and his studio, APV Architects, have even designed a tunnel linking the hotel to sister restaurant and St. Moritz institution, Chesa Veglia (which serves traditional Swiss comfort food in the middle of the village, on checked tablecloths in a quintessentially Alpine, convivial setting). Given a meal or three at Chesa Veglia is unmissable for most Palace guests, this is an exciting development - particularly for anyone who has visited in the wrong footwear during an unexpectedly snowy spell, and found themselves sliding precariously back to Badrutt's Palace.

Chesa Veglia: a St Moritz institution now linked to Badrutt's Palace by an architect-designed walkway © Steve Herud.

The original hotel is not to be overshadowed, however; the Serlas wing is merely maintaining the Palace's focus on high quality, locally-sourced materials and hand-touched, hand-carved design. Throughout its history, relationships with local craftspeople have been nurtured and examples of skilled artistry can be found everywhere - from the hand-carved wooden ceilings that tower above the grand entrance hall to the Sgraffito carvings, characteristic of the region, on the doorways at Chesa Veglia. "Throughout the Engadin, skilful interaction with craftspeople has played an important role for centuries," says Thomas Citterio, Director of Sales and Marketing. "We try to preserve as much of this tradition as possible."

But for all the high-quality craft, high-concept design and high-profile alumni, there remains something decidedly whimsical and reassuring about this schloss on the slopes. Whatever you may think about St. Moritz, I'd leave preconceptions at the door, for there is little postulating or pretension here. Walking into Badrutt’s Palace is a bit like walking into the ancestral home of an eccentric and fiercely-down-to-earth English aristocrat - indisputably grand, but having far too much fun to take themselves too seriously.

Paradiso: A favorite spot in the sky for Badrutt's Palace guests © Andrea Furger.

Regardless of whether you ski, or hit the slopes elsewhere, Badrutt’s Palace is a destination in and of itself. It's a wonderfully warm, faintly anachronistic place, as far from bland luxury and corporate hospitality as you can imagine. It’s a shoes-off-by-the-fire kind of a space, a you-never-know-who-you-might-meet-at-the-bar kind of place, a huge temple to fun and frivolity, where you’ll always find yourself conceding to the bon vivant within. Life, and its challenges, mediocrities and responsibilities, can resume at check out.

And there’s a spa, an enormous spa with wellness spaces crafted from cembra pine and San Bernadino silver. After a superlative tailored massage (which followed an in-depth consultation), I drank peppermint tea with a cinematic front row view of the Engadin's best bits before soaking in the heated outdoor pool as day gave way to night.

A suite in the just-opened Serlas wing, featuring walls wrapped in Loro Piana fabric and furniture by B&B Italia © Steve Herud.

The staff are impeccably dressed, in navy, red and gold, and you may even be collected in the Badrutt's Rolls-Royce, but it’s the crinkle-eyed smiles and unerring joviality that truly impresses. I was left with a distinct feeling that every member of the team knows they have one of the best jobs in hospitality. Whether that’s projected or true, you’ll never know, but no matter. As a guest you feel it, and believe it to be so, which is the real triumph. Hospitality gold star.

For there is really nothing better than staying at a hotel where the staff love what they do, present like a family and warmly welcome you as an honorary member of the clan. The contrary is immediately obvious - particularly during a luxury stay - and, to me, as disappointing as a cold shower or car park view (neither of which you will find here). 

www.badruttspalace.com