Benches flank the round-arched main entrance to this ancient family house, restored in 1946, with its colour-washed facade featuring painted coats of arms, floral friezes, carved wooden shutters flanking deep-set windows and inscriptions in Romansh, a legacy language of the Roman Empire still widely spoken in Scuol, a Lower Engadine Valley spa town in Graubünden or Grisons canton, Switzerland.
Scuol, Graubünden or Grisons canton, Switzerland: wooden benches flank the round-arched main entrance to this ancient family house, restored in 1946, with its colour-washed facade featuring painted coats of arms and floral friezes, carved shutters flanking deep-set windows, and inscriptions in Romansh, a legacy language of the Roman Empire still spoken by nearly half of the inhabitants of this spa town in the Lower Engadine Valley. The property is amongst many other traditional Engadiner houses in Scuol Sot, the old town built close to the alpine River Inn or En on the slope below Scuol’s main street. Scuol Sot is a maze of narrow, winding stone-paved lanes, cobbled alleys and small squares centred on bubbling spring-water fountains. Many of the traditional houses have been renovated more recently than this example, with features such as bread ovens and inscriptions carefully preserved. Some of the historic dwellings feature an oriel window known in Romansh as a ‘balcun tort’, an observation point that allowed householders to view their street in both directions – and keep a watchful eye on their neighbours. Oriel windows of this type are not found anywhere else in Switzerland.
Size: 4072px × 2723px
Location: Scuol, Graubünden or Grisons canton, Switzerland:
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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