The road follows the Inn through the Lower Engadine, past Ardez, Guarda, Ftan, the valley narrowing, the slopes steepening. Ramosch sits where the valley widens again, a street village with terraced fields along its flanks. Among neighbouring houses with pale sgraffito façades, a wooden gate opens onto a courtyard that looks older than it is—or younger.
The Location
Ramosch lies in the Lower Engadine, one of Switzerland’s driest villages and, in summer, one of its warmest. Schilana 80 stands at some 1,300 metres above sea level, within the village, a short walk from its centre. The mild climate and good soil once made Ramosch and the higher-lying Vnà the granary of the Engadine; the terraced fields of the former farmland still mark the slopes. Pale sgraffito paintings trace the façade, a plastering technique that has decorated Engadine windows and doorframes for centuries. The wooden gate onto the street looks unassuming—behind it opens a house considerably larger than the façade suggests.
Backstory
In the 1880s, two village fires destroyed nearly all of Ramosch; only the church and three houses were left standing, one of them Schilana 80. In 2008, a Swiss family living abroad bought the Engadine house, over 300 years old. In 2011 they commissioned Sent architect Duri Vital to restore it, preserving the structure of the historic residential-stable house while making it fit for contemporary living, a careful translation into the present.
In 2021 came the converted attic, with its dormer window and sweeping valley view. The owner family rents the house out personally, with visible trust in their guests: antique regional furniture, arguably too precious to lend out, simply stands there, ready to be used.
Interior & Architecture
Schilana 80 follows the classic structure of an Engadine residential-stable house, spread across four levels. Through the wooden gate, you enter the Sulèr, the central entrance hall with its long table—the communicative heart of the house.
Next to it lies the Stube, panelled in old larch, with a built-in tiled stove and a comfortable sofa. In the 2011 restoration, Duri Vital smoothed nothing over: original building fabric meets modern technology, neither drowning out the other.
Sent-born, he has specialised in rescuing old Engadine houses ever since his first project in 1997 in Tschlin, together with his brother, the artist Not Vital; dozens more followed, among them the Chasa Noth on Scuol’s village square.
The antique furniture in Schilana 80 comes exclusively from the region. Outside, pale sgraffito paintings trace the window frames, a plastering technique that has decorated Engadine façades for centuries. A door leads straight from the eat-in kitchen to the panoramic terrace, with its view over the Inn valley.
A Look Inside
On the ground floor, alongside the Sulèr and Stube, is a bedroom with two beds and a bathroom. A generous hallway on the first floor opens onto the music room with its piano and three further bedrooms — two with double beds, one with a sofa and two beds — plus a second bathroom with a tub.
The converted attic offers 56 square metres of sofas, a fireplace, a billiard table and a small kitchenette, behind which sits another bedroom with a double bed and its own bathroom.
In the basement, reached through the former covered stable yard, wait a living/bedroom with sofa and double bed, a generous sauna, and the laundry room. Altogether, enough for twelve guests without anyone getting in anyone else’s way.
Culinary
Schilana 80 has no kitchen in the restaurant sense, but a very well-equipped one: induction hob, dishwasher, two fridges. The village shop, three hundred metres away, sells good Engadine bread; for bigger shops, it’s a drive to Scuol, eight kilometres off, or twenty minutes across the border to Pfunds in Austria. Anyone who’d rather not cook in the evening doesn’t have far to go: Macun, less than five minutes on foot from the house, pairs fondue and raclette with live music and a stylish bar atmosphere—one of the Lower Engadine’s most distinctive addresses.
Also in the village, Hotel La Randulina serves a four-course menu with regional ingredients every evening. Anyone driving up into the forest above Scuol will find Gasthaus Avrona, a centuries-old inn at the entrance to the Val S-charl, serving a single four-course evening menu, no à la carte, by reservation only.
Wellness & Relaxation
Wellness here mostly means the sauna in the basement, after a day on the trails of the Val Sinestra or the ski slopes of Motta Naluns. Afterwards, a glass of wine on the panoramic terrace, watching the Inn valley turn blue at dusk.
Ramosch lies well away from any larger town, and at night it shows what’s been lost elsewhere: a photograph taken from the balcony shows the Milky Way clearly visible above the house with the naked eye. The garden, with its loungers and parasol, suits doing nothing by day and stargazing by night — both with equal justification.
Surrounding Area
Right next to the house stands the Florinuskirche, the second-largest reformed church in the canton after Chur’s Martinskirche — in the 6th century, this is where the valley’s first Christian church stood, later a pilgrimage site for the miracle-working village priest Florinus. Three hundred metres further on, the ruins of Burg Tschanüff sit above the Inn valley.
High above Ramosch lies Vnà, a largely car-free village that a foundation has been rescuing house by house from decay for some years now — a trip there feels like time travel, only with better coffee. Culturally, it’s worth the drive to Susch, to Muzeum Susch, which shows contemporary art in a former monastery, or to Sent, where a private collection at Hotel Aldier brings together more than two hundred graphic works by Alberto Giacometti.
Anyone after something quieter can walk from Ramosch into the Val Sinestra, past an abandoned Belle Époque spa hotel that has stood empty for decades and is photographed precisely because of it, then on over two suspension bridges to the historic Hof Zuort inn, reachable too from Vnà at the same elevation.
Activities
Anyone wanting to explore the area beyond the house will find a first sorting by interest here.
Culture
- Florinuskirche right in the village, Graubünden’s second-largest reformed church
- Muzeum Susch, contemporary art in a former monastery
- Alberto Giacometti collection at Hotel Aldier, Sent
- Burg Tschanüff ruins, three hundred metres from the house
Active & Outdoors
- Val Sinestra hike over two suspension bridges to the historic Hof Zuort inn, reachable too from Vnà at the same elevation
- The Uina Gorge trail from Sur En, a path cut into the rock along the Italian border
- The climb from Scuol up to the Lischana hut
- Bike tours along the Inn
- A trip to car-free Vnà
- The Swiss National Park, a good hour’s drive away
Winter
- Motta Naluns above Scuol, ten minutes by car
- Nauders across the Austrian border, twenty minutes by car
- Samnaun/Ischgl, thirty minutes by car
- Ski touring and snowshoeing from Ramosch
- Cross-country skiing in the valley
With Children
- Bogn Engiadina Scuol, thermal baths with indoor and outdoor pools
- Schellen-Ursli hiking trail, after the beloved Engadine picture book
- Alpine Astrovillage for a first taste of stargazing
Food & Drink
- Ramosch village shop for good Engadine bread
- Fondue, raclette and live music at Macun, five minutes on foot
- Four-course dinner at Hotel La Randulina
- Reservation-only four-course menu at Gasthaus Avrona, above Scuol
- A free mineral spring on the road to S-charl, bottles ready for filling
© GT
Details
- Six bedrooms for up to 12 guests, spread across four levels
- Two bathrooms, plus one each in the attic and basement
- Sauna in the basement
- Music room with piano, attic with billiard table
- Fully equipped kitchen, washing machine and dryer
- Panoramic terrace, garden with table-tennis table
- Two parking spaces, EV charging wallbox
- Dogs welcome on the ground floor. Non-smoking house
- 5-star classification from the Swiss Tourism Federation
- www.schilana80.de
