Sils im Engadin, Switzerland
Sils im Engadin in Switzerland. In no other village did the paths of great poets and thinkers cross as often as here. Among them Hermann Hesse (a German-Swiss writer, poet and painter), Friedrich Nietzsche (a German classical philologist and philosopher) as well as Proust, Rilke, Thomas Mann, William Faulkner and Annemarie Schwarzenbach. Anne Frank also spent her vacations here. In the past as well as today, the location and climate attract many visitors to the town.
You can enjoy nature and relax here all year round. Nietsche did here mainly the first and used the environment to work crown-centered. The surrounding area invites to hiking and walking, in winter all kinds of winter sports are practiced.
Sils consists of two districts, Sils Maria and Sils Baselgia, and is located less than 10 km from the famous ski resort of Sankt Moritz. While Sils im Engadin is located at the southern end of the Silvaplanersee, Sankt Moritz is located beyond the northern end, at the St. Moritzersee.
Another excursion tip: Val Fex (Fex Valley), a beautiful valley, within walking distance from Sils Maria. In just a few steps (which take you up a steep incline) you enter the valley and feel as if you are in another world – especially in winter, when everything is white with snow.
As metioned above, Sils is full of history. Just go on a walk from the village square of Sils Maria to Sils Baselgia and you will find yourself on a journey through a century of cultural history: the wine bar “vis-à-vis” and the Chesa Marchetta on the village square are depicted in paintings by Marc Chagall. You will also walk along the same path Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein walked along. Madame Churchill and Charlie Chaplin, for example, stopped at the former pastry shop Schulze (Chesa Botton d`Oro), a former meeting place of the sophisticated world. The first hotel of Sils was Alpenrose. It accommodated among others the travel guide publisher Baedeker and the philosopher Karl Jaspers. In Sils Baselgia, Rainer Maria Rilke, but also Arthur Schnitzler, Max Frisch, Carl Zuckmayer and the theater director Kurt Hirschfeld stayed in the palazzo-like Parkhotel Margna. Go and explore yourself, follow the path of the great poets and thinkers in Sils im Engadin in Switzerland.