Elegant wrought iron balustrade flanks steps leading up from a cobbled path to the front door of a traditional ochre-washed Engadiner house at Ardez, Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland, with a sculpted family crest above the main entrance and the deep-set shuttered windows enhanced by colourful pots of flowers.
Ardez, Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland: a flight of steps with an elegant wrought iron balustrade leads up from a cobbled path to the front door of a traditional ochre-washed Engadiner house, with its deep-set shuttered windows enhanced by pots of flowers and a sculpted family crest above the main entrance. Ardez, like other alpine villages around the town of Scuol, is renowned for its restored 16th and 17th century houses, with many decorated with wall art, heraldic symbols and inscriptions in Romansh, a language derived from the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire that is still used and understood by many local people. While some facades and architectural features are painted with colourful designs, others are enhanced by sgraffito, the revived artistic technique of scratching or cutting away parts of a surface layer of plaster, stucco or paint to expose a different colour or texture. Graubünden artists and craftsmen now use sgraffito both in restoration work and in new build projects.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Ardez, Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: alpine, alps, apricot, architecture, ardez, balustrade, bassa, canton, central, cobbled, cobbles, crest, , deep-set, display, door, doorway, dwelling, eastern, engadin, engadine, engadiner, engiadina, entrance, europe, european, family, flight, floor, floral, flower, flowers, front, graubünden, grisons, heraldic, house, inn, iron, ironwork, kerr, municipality, mustair, ochre, path, portal, pots, region, restored, rustic, rusticated, scrolled, scuol, shuttered, shutters, staircase, steps, sunny, sunshine, swiss, switzerland, terence, traditional, tubs, val, valley, vernacular, village, wash, windows, wrought
