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Alpine roman­ticism without kitsch: Schilana 80

In the upper Inn valley rests a 300-year-old Engadine house. In all serenity, it awaits and decelerates guests who appreciate built and lived authenticity in the Central Alps.

by Ulrich Knoll in July 2022

Coming from the direction of Munich, via Inns­bruck and the upper Inn valley, con­ti­nually fol­lowing the river towards its source at the Maloja Pass, my journey auto­ma­ti­cally leads me to the Lower Engadine in Switz­erland.

While for hours my gaze was con­stantly drawn to the mountain river, which keeps getting wilder and more pristine, time became a blur. Even before the train and mail bus catapult me punc­tually out of the Inn-related time-space con­tinuum in Ramosch in the Lower Engadine at an altitude of 1250 metres, the holiday has begun. Recovery phase 1: com­plete. Everyday life is already behind me.

Stepping off the bus, my gaze wanders up the slope. But before I can locate my new tem­porary quarters in the village ensemble, I become con­scious of the chirping of cri­ckets, the crowing of a rooster and the call of the cuckoo. And the mountain land­scape. Summer! Switz­erland! Anti­ci­pation.

There is still snow on the peaks, but summer has already arrived in the valley.

I walk a few hundred metres (not metres in altitude, don’t worry!) across the central village square before I turn a corner and see an ensemble of houses around a fountain and for the first time the Engadine house Schilana 80 in front of me. Solid stone, powerful, unique. Stunning.

As impressive as the land­scape around it. Because: Engadine is not just Engadine, as I quickly learn. On the one hand, because the Lower Engadine, which is con­sidered less glamorous, is a pleasant con­trast to the spar­kling cham­pagne climate of St. Moritz. On the other hand, because the Inn Valley is more dra­matic here: cut into a V‑shape, the water masses meander through their narrow bed as a wild alpine river. Regardless of which part of Switz­erland you prefer, at that moment the “Heidi” cliché ing­rained in me by TV since childhood invol­un­t­arily reas­sembles itself in my mind.

In any case, the area around Ramosch is one of the sun­niest in Switz­erland and also has the least rain. So, if you don’t want jetset and are a fan of unspoilt nature, this is the place for you.

Tra­di­tional building, unco­vered layer by layer

With my thoughts returning to the scene in front of me, two things imme­diately catch my eye as I stand in front of the imposing ent­rance gate: the finely crafted sgra­fitto and the funnel-shaped windows typical of the region, which even from the outside give a hint of the enormous thic­kness of the walls.

Later I will learn that the view is by no means as obvious as the one I have already com­mitted to memory as a God-given fact. The more than 300-year-old Engadine house is only one of three resi­dential buil­dings that, along with the church, sur­vived the devas­tating village fire of Ramosch in 1880.

In the doorway, the owners of the house, a Swiss family living abroad, are already waiting for me. They bought the pro­perty in 2008 and in the fol­lowing years, tog­ether with the well-known Swiss architect Duri Vital, have given it a new life and gently brought it into the present. In doing so, they almost unre­ser­vedly fol­lowed the expertise of the architect, who has a vast know­ledge of dealing with the his­toric building fabric of the Engadine.

For decades, the interior architect has been dedi­cated to the building culture of the region. His prio­rities are the pre­ser­vation of existing struc­tures and the redis­covery of for­gotten building styles. When modern ele­ments can be seam­lessly inte­grated, as in this case, he con­siders his mission accom­plished.

The owners have felt the same way ever since, even though unfort­u­nately they are able to spend far too little time here. They rent out the house for most of the year since it would simply seem inap­pro­priate to them if it were empty. So, it is mainly guests from home and abroad who can enjoy the cohe­rence and unob­trusive but noti­ceable quality of the archi­tec­tural inter­ven­tions.

Inside the former stable house, a special feature awaits me, as I am as yet unfa­miliar with Engadine houses: the ves­tibule, com­monly called “sulèr” here.
Once, narrow car­riages drove through it at ground level towards the barn or hay shed. In places where in 2008 the cei­lings were still sus­pended, the wooden floor lay dormant under laminate flo­oring waiting to be redis­co­vered and the room as a whole was clut­tered beyond reco­gnition, today a spa­cious ent­rance area opens up again, inviting guests to spend time in con­vivial company.

Various rooms lead off from here. First and foremost is the parlour (Roma­nesque: “stüva”), which has been res­tored to its former sple­ndour fol­lowing the unco­vering and res­to­ration of the cen­turies-old Swiss stone pine wood panelling. Among other things, the his­toric serving hatch to the kitchen has been pre­served. As in the entire house, inlays, doors and floors were res­tored or replaced.

The kitchen (“chadafö”) was enlarged during the reno­vation work: where there was ori­gi­nally a narrow kitchen, there is now an anteroom that merges into the current kitchen. The state-of-the-art equipment and modern appearance create a charming con­trast to the existing building.
From the kitchen, you can access the spa­cious balcony, which offers a view of the Inn Valley and the mountain range that sur­rounds it, behind which lies the Italian Vinschgau Valley. The three-thousand-metre Piz S‑chalambert Dadaint, which rises maje­s­ti­cally almost 2000 metres above the Inn Valley, is always in full view.

A bedroom and a bathroom also lead off from the sulèr. From here, you also go down to the basement with the his­toric inner cour­tyard, called “cuort”, through which the cattle were once driven to the adjacent stable. Today, the sauna area and the washing and drying room are located here. The rela­xation room belonging to the sauna has an exit to the garden. And thanks to the sofa bed, it can also be used as a bedroom for large groups of guests.

Back on the ground floor, we climb up and explore the upper floors tog­ether.

The first floor has two bed­rooms, a bathroom and a large, lounge-like com­munal area, which can also be con­verted into a bedroom if required. This is fol­lowed by the music room, which can also be used as a study. While working at the desk by the window, the guests can look directly down on the Inn and towards the moun­tains.

Schilana revamped: Lounge in the attic

In 2020 the attic (“palant­schin”), ori­gi­nally a cold room inac­ces­sible to guests, was con­verted into addi­tional guest accom­mo­dation. The architect Adriana Stuppan, a former employee of Duri Vital, who in 2019 started her own archi­tec­tural practice in neigh­bouring Ftan, was ent­rusted with the con­version.

Guests access the top floor via a metal staircase in raw steel, which appears to be almost floating. Once at the top, guests are wel­comed by a spa­cious lounge with a pool table, kit­chenette and a large living area by the fire­place. From here, the new dormer window on the south side again offers a sweeping view of the Inn Valley and the sur­rounding mountain pan­orama.

Also new on this level is an addi­tional guest room with ensuite bathroom, which adjoins the lounge in the eastern part, so that up to twelve guests can now be accom­mo­dated in a total of six bed­rooms.

From a tech­nical point of view, the con­version of the attic was used to make the house much more self-suf­fi­cient by means of pho­to­vol­taics.

Alt­hough the history of the house is not com­pletely known, it can be assumed from the above-average heights of the rooms and the sizes of the windows that the builders and pre­vious owners must have been wealthier local farmers.

Mountain and valley, people and cul­tures

Not only the owners of Schilana are fasci­nated by the magic of Ramosch in this part of the Lower Engadine, a peri­pheral area on the Swiss map. The seclusion in the middle of the moun­tains offers a unique recrea­tional area. At the same time, Ramosch is an intact village because it is authentic. The vast majority of people you meet are locals; you hardly ever see tou­rists. You immerse yourself in the village and its sur­roun­dings, explore the local (archi­tec­tural) culture and listen with fasci­nation to the unfa­miliar, warm sounds of Romansh, the fourth national lan­guage of Switz­erland. Of course, you also occa­sio­nally hear Swiss German – at the very latest when you join in the con­ver­sa­tions yourself.

When you leave the village, you can walk from the house to the Tschanüff castle ruins, once one of the most important castle com­plexes in the Lower Engadine. Walkers and joggers are usually drawn to the paths along the Inn, and hikers explore the Val Sinestra or the Uina Gorge, for example.

If you are more inte­rested in the regional building methods you can visit the Lower Engadine Museum in the Engadine House Cha Gronda (“Big House”) in Scuol Sot. Among other things, the entire inventory of the tra­di­tional Engadine house with all its rooms and the former farming equipment of the Lower Engadine are on display there.

As Ramosch is located in the border tri­angle, excur­sions to the South Tyrolean Vinschgau and the Aus­trian Ober­inntal are pos­sible in summer and winter.

In winter, of course, the various tri-national skiing areas are attractive, unless you indulge in cross-country skiing. Then you can safely stay in Ramosch and find your hap­piness right here.

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Text: Ulrich Stefan Knoll, Juli 2022
Photos: © Zeljko Gataric (Cover photo, 1, 4, 13, 14, 16–19, 21–24, 26–35, 44) © Archiv Unter­engadin (8) © Adriana Stuppan / studio d’architectura Ftan (7, 20, 36) © Georg Vetter (39–41) © Ulrich Stefan Knoll (2, 3, 5, 6, 9–12, 15, 25, 37, 38, 42, 43)
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Schilana 80