Decorated houses
Plaster designs.
Adrian Michael — CC BY-SA 1.0 · Christoph Strässler — CC BY-SA 2.0 · JoachimKohler-HB — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sylvaine-laurence — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Christoph Strässler — CC BY-SA 2.0
Guarda is a mountain village in the Lower Engadine in the canton of Graubünden in eastern Switzerland, a municipality of its own until it merged into Scuol in 2015, about 11 km west of Scuol and 40 km northeast of St. Moritz in a straight line. It was first mentioned in 1160 as Warda. Between 1939 and 1945 a major renovation of its buildings was led by the Swiss architect Iachen Ulrich Könz. In 1975 it won the Wakker Prize for preserving its architectural heritage, a Swiss award for protecting built heritage. The village sits on a terrace above the Inn valley, with large traditional Engadine houses lining its cobbled street: white and yellow walls decorated with designs scratched into the plaster, small deep-set windows and big wooden doors. Wooden fountains stand among them, looking out over the valley and snowy mountains. Visitors arrive by train at Guarda station and take the small bus up to the village, wander its quiet street between the decorated houses and walk the mountain paths to neighbouring villages. The village is calm in every season and snow-covered in winter.
Plaster designs.
On the street.
Snowy mountains.
Guarda, Scuol, Graubünden, Switzerland
By train, then a small bus.
Any season.