Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: What is the population of Pontresina?
Pontresina has a population (as of 31 December 2018) of 2,162.[5] As of 2008, 29.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.[6] Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 3.9%.[2]
Ever since the installation in 1981 of a switchable catenary section above track 3 at Pontresina station, the Bernina Express through coaches from Chur have been hauled as far as Pontresina by a core network electric locomotive powered by 11 kV AC current. After the train stops in Pontresina, the core network locomotive is uncoupled, and the catenary section is switched to 1,000 V DC. A Bernina Railway railcar train is then manoeuvred onto the existing train. The rolling stock so added is usually made up of ABe 4/4 II or ABe 4/4 III railcars, sometimes mixed with a Gem 4/4. At the conclusion of the timetabled seven-minute halt in Pontresina, the train continues further under the DC wires and over the Bernina Pass towards Tirano.
Commercial success permitted Stoppany to enlarge his hotel in 1895. The rebuild provided for a capacity increase to 150 rooms with 200 beds.[11] Guests had also become more demanding in terms of creature comforts since 1880: the Hotel Pontresina of 1895 was able to compete on equal terms at the top end of the market with recently constructed or renovated rival establishments in Pontresina and St. Moritz.
In Pontresina about 62.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).[2]
The historical population is given in the following table:[1][7]
During the summer, the Bernina Express comprises a special separate train that travels from Chur to Pontresina with very few stops. In Pontresina, the locomotive is changed (because of the Bernina line's different electricity current) and the train continues with few stops to Tirano.
Media related to Pontresina at Wikimedia Commons
During fall, winter and spring, the Bernina Express comprises several cars that are attached to regional services. From Chur to Samedan, they are part of a RegioExpress train Chur – St. Moritz; from Samedan to Pontresina, they are part of a Regio train Scuol-Tarasp – Pontresina; from Pontresina to Tirano, they are part of a Regio train from St. Moritz – Tirano. Each of these Bernina Express trains includes designated carriages for passengers with only regional train tickets.
Pontresina has an average of 97.8 days of rain per year and on average receives 799mm (31.5in) of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Pontresina receives an average of 104mm (4.1in) of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 10.7 days. The driest month of the year is February with an average of 31mm (1.2in) of precipitation over 10.7 days.[8]
Technical progress also impacted transport links. On 1 July 1903 the Albula Railway opened between Thusis and Samedan, which connected the Engadin region with the cantonal capital, Chur. Hitherto hotel guests had been required to undergo a ten-hour journey, normally by post carriage, via the Julier or Albula Pass in order to reach Pontresina from Chur. That ten hour post carriage journey was now replaced with a four-hour railway journey. At Samedan Station trains were met by the Hotel Pontresina's own horse-drawn bus for the final 6km (4 mile) climb up the valley to Pontresina.[17] It was exactly another five years before the branch line passing through Pontresina opened, on 1 July 1908, in the process linking the Albula railway to the Bernina railway and creating a through route to Tirano in Italy.
The first visitors mostly came because their doctors had recommended a health cure, but these were soon joined by more recreational travellers. From about 1850 there was a rapid growth in mountaineering as a leisure activity. Pioneering mountain tourists, many of whom came from England, favoured Pontresina over St. Moritz as a starting point for their Engadin climbing holidays. The first edition of 's "Piz Languard Und Die Bernina-gruppe Bei Pontresina, Oberengadin" appeared in 1858.[7] In this early tour guide the parish priest for St. Moritz and Samedan described the hiking and mountaineering tours in a wide area around Pontresina. The local "Improvement Association" ("Verschönerungsverein") was founded in 1872 and by the 1890s had laid out a network of paths and riding tracks extending to more than 80km (50 miles).[8] The routes were given euphonous names such as "Schluchtenpromenade", "Thaispromenade" or "Flazpromenade" and their total cost was recorded as 35,151 Swiss francs.[8]
The hotel is built on a well chosen site, in the centre of Pontresina, directly on the east side what was till 1963/65 the main through route linking St. Moritz with the Bernina Pass and Italy. (Since 1964 a replacement main road on the other side of the little valley has carried the through traffic, and the hotel itself is in a zone where traffic speeds are restricted to 30km/h.)
The Champion of Pontresina (German: Der Springer von Pontresina) is a 1934 German-Swiss comedy film directed by Herbert Selpin and starring Sepp Rist, Rudolf Klicks and Eric Helgar.
The Sporthotel Pontresina was completed in 1881.[1][2] It is a three star hotel in the resort village of Pontresina, slightly less than two hours (depending on road/rail conditions) to the south of Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland.
As of 2000, the gender distribution of the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female.[7] The age distribution, as of 2000, in Pontresina is; 165 children or 7.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old. 95 teenagers or 4.3% are 10 to 14, and 136 teenagers or 6.2% are 15 to 19. Of the adult population, 438 people or 20.0% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 435 people or 19.9% are 30 to 39, 354 people or 16.2% are 40 to 49, and 269 people or 12.3% are 50 to 59. The senior population distribution is 153 people or 7.0% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 97 people or 4.4% are 70 to 79, there are 45 people or 2.1% who are 80 to 89, and there are 4 people or 0.2% who are 90 to 99.[6]
Most of the many hotels in Pontresina were either constructed as purpose built or else the result of a change of use for an existing house. The Sporthotel Pontresina's structure results from a more convoluted and iterative series of steps. The hotel that opened in 1881 still, in most respects, comprised at its heart the old "Maison Stiffler" guest house, which itself dated back only to 1866,[8] but the architect brothers Ragaz also integrated into the overall building the previously separate photographic shop acquired from the photographer, named Alex Flury.[8] On the ground floor of the former photographic shop the hotelier Stoppany installed Pontresina's (second) post station, to generate customers for the hotel and its restaurant.
As far as Britain and Germany were concerned, war resumed in September 1939. Switzerland, as in 1914, was politically and militarily neutral, but the countries supplying most of the Hotel Pontresina's guests were not. The Swiss frontiers were closed to holiday traffic in September 1939. Swiss vacationers were no longer able to holiday abroad, and a few of them occupied the hotel rooms that had been emptied by the war, but these, even when supplemented by the use of the hotel for military accommodation, were insufficient, and it proved impossible to keep the hotel open during the winter seasons. Food and fuel were rationed, adding to management difficulties. Only in 1948, three years after the formal end of the war, was rationing of basic consumer goods ended.[40] By this time, just in time for the first post war summer season in 1946, Roman und Marlies Thöndury had taken over at the Sporthotel Pontresina, while their predecessors since 1934, Hans und Mary Walther, had been headhunted (by the Graubündner Kantonalbank which controlled both establishments) to take charge of relaunching Pontresina's "Palace Hotel", where their grandson and his wife still (2015) run what has subsequently been renamed as the "Hotel Walther".[41]
Pontresina has an area, as of 2006, of 118.2km2 (45.6sqmi). Of this area, 16.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 8.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (72.9%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).[2]
Further innovations designed to build a winter season business included a programme of dances and costume balls arranged by the larger hotels, including the Hotel Pontresina, advertised both to their own guests and to guests of other Pontresina hotels.[20] In January 1913 one of the balls was held as a celebration of the German Kaiser's birthday.[21] Something of an experiment, in the view of at least one contemporary reporter, was the introduction of the "Tango Tea party" at the Hotel Pontresina on 27 December 1913.[22]
Guest lists from the war years make clear the difficulties involved in trying to replace all the foreign guests who were staying away with Swiss guests. Even for the summer season Swiss customers tended to prefer the more competitively priced second and third rank hotels over the luxury establishments such as the Hotel Pontresina,[29] while for the winter seasons during the war years the Pontresina simply remained shut.
The history of the hotel goes back to the boom in Swiss tourism during the second half of the nineteenth century. The founder of the hotel, Florian Stoppany, who came from a family of bakers and confectioners, acquired the "Maison Stiffler", a village guest house, and employed the architect Jakob Ragaz to expand it into the mid-sized Post Hotel Pontresina, which opened in 1881. The further expansion to a first class renaissance revival hotel took place in 1895.[4] From now on the clientele of what was now known as the Hotel Pontresina came increasingly from the German upper middle class. Following the installation of central heating, in 1906/07, for the first time, the hotel opened for a winter season.
From 1924 guest numbers finally began a slow recovery, benefitting most of the region's hotels, including the Hotel Pontresina. Brochures of the time indicate that management took the opportunity to resume renovations, notably of the public rooms on the ground floor. There is evidence for a growth in popularity with holidaymakers during the 1920s of recreational swimming and bathing,[32] and bathing facilities were made available at Lake Staz and in the surrounding woodlands ("Stazerwald") between Pontresina and St. Moritz.
The architect Ragaz again chose the Renaissance Revival style, which balanced the 1881 extension. However, a more ornate interpretation was adopted, respecting fashion changes during the intervening fifteen years. All parts of the building were placed securely on a single four sided basement. Because of the slope of the land the northern portion of the building was given an additional floor beneath the level of the main first floor but above the basement section. The roofline from the middle section followed the line of the existing attic windows as did the curved lintels over the palladian-style windows. Facing the street on the building's western side, above front facade and the central lintel, in very large letters, was written "Pontresina−Hotel−Pontresina".
A historical transport route of wine across the alps passes Pontresina and continues towards Davos across Scaletta Pass that lost importance completely when roads were built elsewhere.[10]
Pontresina (Romansh: Puntraschigna) is a municipality in the Maloja Region in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.