A sgraffito dragon with curved claws and a curled tail snarls from the left spandrel of a rounded entrance arch, dated 1569, to an ancient house once owned by the powerful von Planta family in the historic Lower Engadine Valley village of Ardez, in Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland. The Planta also once owned a family stronghold in Ardez, a 13th century stone tower now known as the Tuor Ardez or Vonzun Turm.
Ardez, Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland: a rustic sgraffito dragon with curved claws and a curled tail snarls from the left spandrel of the round arch over a doorway dated 1569, the main entrance to an ancient house once owned by the powerful von Planta family. The centre of the arch displays a shield bearing the Planta heraldic symbol of the severed leg of a bear. The Planta were among about a dozen noble families comprising the ruling class in Grisons, Switzerland’s largest canton. Andreas Planta served as Chancellor of the Upper Engadine in the 13th century and Thomas Planta was Bishop of Chur from 1551 to 1565. In Ardez, the Planta were the first recorded owners of the Tuor Ardez or Vonzun Turm, a medieval stone tower that served as a family stronghold before being used as a prison. Ardez, in the Lower Engadine Valley, is now part of the municipality of Scuol. It is renowned for its superbly restored 16th and 17th century houses decorated with preserved original wall art, either as wall paintings or in the form of sgraffito scratched into their facades. Sgraffito is the ancient artistic technique of scraping or cutting away parts of a surface layer of plaster, stucco or paint to expose a different colour or texture. Its heyday in Grisons / Graubünden was in the 1600s and 1700s, but the craft was revived in the early 1900s amid fresh appreciation of traditional regional artistic styles. The canton’s current generation of artists and craftsmen use sgraffito both in restoration work and in new build projects.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Ardez, Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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