Snapshot: Summer at the swimming pool, circa 1963

After a year of construction, the heated swimming pool of the Carlton Kulm Sporting Club was inaugurated in July 1963 in the presence of international journalists and local celebrities. Designed by architect Auf der Maur and built by Albert Ernst, director of the AG Grand-Hotels Engadinerkulm, which owned the Hotel Kulm and the Hotel Carlton, the swimming pool is located in a valley between the two hotels, sheltered from the Maloja wind.

In addition to culinary delights and musical performances, the opening ceremony featured acrobatics and an eight-person Zurich water ballet. The Zurich fashion house Oscar Rom presented a fashion show with bathing and beach dresses, day and evening wear.

Little is known about the subsequent activities of the Sporting Club, not even how long the swimming pool was in operation. A NZZ report from 1971 mentions that the outdoor pool was no longer used in winter because of the enormous heating costs. By this time, the large hotels were building their own indoor pools, which replaced the outdoor pool. A change of ownership of the Hotel Carlton in 1975 may also have contributed to the end of the swimming pool operations.

Images and Text: Dokumentationsbibliothek St. Moritz