Pontresina Diavolezza

This poster is promoting the ski destination, Mount Diavolezza which is in the Pontresina region of Switzerland. The grand snow capped mountain stands tall and magnificent in the background. The mountain can be reached by cable car from Val Bernina, the Bernina Pass valley.

Pontresina is a municipality in the Maloja Region in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The Diavolezza is a mountain viewpoint above the Val Bernina in Graubünden. It has an altitude of 2,973 meters (9,754 ft) and is located between Munt Pers and Piz Trovat. From Diavolezza one can see the highest peaks of the Eastern Alps: the Piz Bernina and the Vadret Pers, a tributary of the Morteratsch Glacier.

A mysterious legend has been passed down by generation about a beautiful she-devil. Once upon a time, many, many years ago, there lived on high a magnificent mountain fairy-queen. She lived in her mountain stronghold high up between Chapütschöl and Munt Pers, a place where, among towering crags and vast expanses of rocky scree, a deep-blue lake set among a flower-strewn mountain pasture mirrors the sunlight. Hunters rarely spotted this magnificent she-spirit – and only ever fleetingly – but when they did, they gazed fondly as she moved across the rock faces of the Munt Pers to the Lej da la Diavolezza to bathe in its refreshing waters. With time the young huntsmen became quite besotted, and then indiscreet. No-one really knows what happened then; one can only guess. One hunter after the other disappeared, erring forever on the Munt Pers (or lost mountain). Such was the fate of Aratsch, a handsome youth from the village, who never returned from the hunt. They searched for him high and low, yet in vain, and in the end forced to assume he had fallen into a glacier crevasse on Munt Pers or plummeted to his death. Indeed, anyone thereafter who at nightfall still lingered among Bernina Massif could hear the wailing voice of the Diavolezza borne on the drifting wind, calling: mort ais Aratsch (Aratsch is dead). But still the Diavolezza would not rest, not until the glacier had inched its way down and covered the entire mountain alp with ice and scree, right down to the valley. Only then did she finally leave the region, lamenting davent dal Munt dal Pers – and was never seen again.

Martin Peikert (1901-1975) was a Swiss artist. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and worked as an advertising illustrator until he graduated in 1921. He then travelled to Stuttgart, Hamburg and Paris and worked in Geneva as a commercial painter and decorator and from 1925 to 1927. He designed the newspaper "Wochenschau" by Orell Füssli AG Zurich. From 1927 he worked as a freelance graphic artist and painter. Peikert’s 1920s posters were greatly influenced by Art Deco. His tourism posters had a unique, clear, memorable style. In the 1940s he lived in French-speaking Switzerland, where he created tourism posters in his fresh, youthful style for the Valais and the Bernese Oberland.

This is an Original Vintage Poster; it is not a reproduction. This poster is conservation mounted, linen backed, and in excellent condition. We guarantee the authenticity of all of our posters.