Sgraffiti in Engadine

10 April 2023

Engadine ((canton Grisons) houses are often decorated with geometric motifs, drawings, animals or sayings.

Italian artists introduced the technique in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries after the Bündner expansion in the Italian territories. The artists wanted to earn money, and the fresco technique was well-known in Italy.

It was a successful export product. The technology is universal and can also be found in Africa and other parts of Europe — for example, in Bohemia and on the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea.

The name graffiti means ils sgrafito in Romansh. It is a simple fresco technique based on white paint on the mortar. Motifs can be applied as long as the colour is wet. The colour difference between white and grey makes the motifs visible. Graffiti is a real art.

(Source: A. Overath, Gebrauchsanweisung für das Engadin, München, Berlin, 2017).