A place of creative inspiration

Painters, writers and philosophers started flocking to the villages of the Engadin in the 18th century. They found inspiration and mutual support for their creative endeavours here, with the phenomenal lighting conditions a particular attraction.

“I’m possessed by the fear of an inevitable tomorrow that is here today, making me leave behind this sun and light worth more than all the treasure in the world and travel back down to earth.”

Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908 – 1942), journalist, photographer and traveller, said she never felt more at home than when she was in the Engadin.

“Jamais j’ai vu une pareille lumière!

C’est extra! C’est inoui!” (Never before have I seen light like this! It’s extraordinary! It’s unbelievable!)

Ferdinand Hodler (1853 – 1918) came to the Engadin for two months in the summer of 1907 and produced several of his best-known works of art.

“It was here, high up in Graubünden, that I really started to focus on the sun. This is where I fell in love with its rays and first felt a desire to capture them.”

Giovanni Segantini (1858 – 1899) is an artist known for his paintings of the Alps. He adored the light and mountains of the Upper Engadin.

“Here sat I waiting, waiting, but for naught! Beyond all good and evil –now by light wrought.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) spent seven summers in Sils, starting in 1881. This is where he wrote his most famous book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

“In the afternoon light, the craggy rock looked like amber, with a violet sky above it. The little glacier – or at least its cracks – created a contrast with its bluish tinge, and the snow was like milk, with only my deep footprints leaving behind glassy blue blemishes.”

“Every winter for ten years, I spent several months working on the Julier and Bernina Passes, because I was drawn to the culmination of light and colour all the way up there.”

Peter Robert Berry II (1864 – 1942) in his memoir MusingsonMy Creative Process