The Via Engadina, from Upper-Engadin, via Guarda to Lower-Engadin

18 September 2024

The Via Engiadina is a hiking tour from Casaccia (Bergell) in Upper Engadin (Oberengadin), on the Italian border, to Vinadi in Lower Engadin (Unterengadin), on the Austrian border.

The Bergell (Val Bregaglia) borders the Veltlin (Valtellina), which was a subject area for more than two hundred and fifty years (1512-1798), a so-called Untertanengebiet of the Free State of the Three Leagues (Freistaat der Drei Bünde), the forerunner of canton Graubünden.

The 140-kilometre route is easy to walk (or cycle) in stages because of the excellent accommodation facilities. The difference in altitude is 2,500 to 1,086 metres in Vinadi.

The hiker is accompanied by art, tourism, history, nature, world-famous places, beautiful villages with Engadine architecture, and famous mountain passes.

Maloja, Sils Maria (and lake) and St. Moritz (and lake) are the first larger villages in the beautiful mountain landscape. Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) and the museum dedicated to him in St. Moritz give this landscape an artistic dimension.

The Inn (En in Romansh) guides Vinadi, passing through Sils and its Waldhaus and museum (Nietsche-Haus).

The tour also passes through Celerina, Beaver, Zuoz (and its beautiful houses (Chesa Planta) and square (Plazzet), Brail (the border between Upper Engadin, Putèr Romansh, and Lower Engadin, Vallader Romansh, Zernez (and the highest peak of Engadin the Piz Linard of 3 410 metres, Wildenberg Castle and the centre of the National Park of Switzerland), Susch, Lavin, Guarda, Ardez, Ftan, Scuol (Bogn Engiadina and Museum of Lower Engadin), Vulpera Tarasp (Castle of Tarasp and Trinkhalle, Foundation Nair in Vulpera), overlooking the Engadine Dolomites, Sent, Vnà, Val Sinestra, Ramosch, Tschlin, Martina and finally Vinadi.

Vinadi is the old border town of the Free State of the Three Leagues; the castle Altfinstermünz on the Austrian side reminds us of this border.

Impressions of Guarda