Village portrait
Experience hospitality
Holidaymakers who found St. Moritz too busy drove on to Sils Maria. That's how it was a hundred years ago; and that's how it is today. You can feel it with every step: whoever comes to Sils wants to do something for their soul. And experience the warmth of a small village with around 8 inhabitants, where tourism has a tradition and has been alive for over 100 years.
On the road through history
You wouldn't be the first guest to rave about Sils. Since Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher and poet, declared Sils the «loveliest corner of the earth», writers, musicians and painters have visited the village and learned to appreciate it. Getting to know Sils also means discovering its culture. Our range of concerts, readings and cultural conferences as well as our museums warmly invite you to do so.
Two hearts, one soul
Sils Maria and Sils Baselgia: Our village has two names because it includes two localities. Sils Baselgia grew up around the church of San Lurench. It was first mentioned in 1356 and still stands today. «Baselgia» is derived from basilica (church). In Sils Maria, the larger part of the village, there used to be a large dairy. The name «Maria» does not refer to the proper name, but to the term dairy. «Sils» means something like green mat, long strip of fields. This also referred to the Sils Lake Plain. It is still a «green mat» - thanks to landscape and nature conservation and the awareness of these values that the Sils population carries within themselves.
Farmers, fishermen, patricians
Sils was once a small farming and fishing village and a place where travellers rested and changed their horses on the Maloja-Julier route. Meadows and the lake belonged to the bishop of Chur up until the Reformation. When the Alpenrose Hotel opened in 1865, many things began to change: the first spa guests – who initially visited only during the summer – arrived and marked the beginning of a new era in the village. They later invented winter sports. Many elements of the original Sils have remained to this day: the magnificent Engadin houses, for example, most of which were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. But also the peace and quiet, as the majority of our village is practically traffic-free.
Small mountain pastures, great scenery, merging cultures
Sils is nestled in the plain between Lake Sils and Lake Silvapana. The municipality of Sils includes the three Maiensäss settlements (a high mountain settlement with lush pastures to which farmers moved for the summer) of Grevasalvas, Blaunca and Buaira as well as the hamlets of Plaun da Lej and Val Fex. Perhaps the most beautiful of these, Grevasalvas, lies high above Lake Sils and was the picturesque backdrop for the film «Heidi».
Plaun da Lej and Isola (municipality of Bregaglia) lie on the shores of Lake Sils. Delicious culinary delights await you in both villages all year round. At Lake Sils you are on the border between the Romansh and Italian-speaking regions, where the population and architecture merge into one another
Sils entdecken
get inspired
Artists & Thinkers
World-famous poets, thinkers, musicians, painters and scientists have chosen Sils as their favorite place.
Artists & Thinkers
Under the spell of Val Fex
Anyone looking for peace, nature and uniqueness will find paradise in the Fex Valley.
Val Fex
Nature, culture and adventure
Experience Sils actively. Discover experiences and activities in the holiday region on Lake Sils.
Activities in and around Sils
Protection of Lake Sils
The association “Pro Lej da Segl” is committed to protecting the Upper Engadin lake landscape.
Learn more
Angebote
Silser Gutscheine