Cons: Rooms are compact with limited storage; no air-conditioning or other climate-control system; service can feel somewhat green
Rates: From $625
Set at 5,915 feet in Switzerland’s Engadine Valley, Sils Maria is a destination in every season, with hiking, lake swimming, and biking during the warmer months and skiing and snowshoeing once the powder arrives. The alpine hamlet has long been a cultural magnet with a history of luminaries from Friedrich Nietzsche and David Bowie to Jean-Michel Basquiat, all of whom came for cool summers, alpine hikes, and woodsy lake swims.
I had similar intentions when my husband and I visited in summer, driving here from Zurich, where I live, on a sweltering 93-degree day. As we climbed into the Alps, temperatures dropped into the low 70s; by night, they were in the upper 40s.
Our accommodation was once a 16th-century inn called Pensiun Andreola; it was run by the local Godly family and known for its food, quirky hospitality, and artistic clientele. Fittingly, it was purchased in 2019 by Artfarm, the hospitality company run by Swiss gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth, whose properties also include the Fife Arms in the Scottish Highlands. Following a four-year renovation by Paris-based architect Luis Laplace, it reopened in early 2026 as Chesa Marchetta.
Chesa Marchetta occupies a restored 16th-century inn in the Engadine village of Sils Maria.
Photo by Dave Watts
The 13-room inn now has a restaurant, a garden, a library, two private event spaces, and a weathered barn turned lounge where guests can have a cocktail alongside works by Louise Bourgeois, Pipilotti Rist, and Giovanni Segantini, who famously painted these Alps. Guests can also sign up for foraging walks, yoga, and cold plunges.
The restoration preserved plenty of the building’s ancient bones: Imperfect stone walls, weathered wood beams, and river-stone pathways lend it an almost medieval quality. A grassy cloistered garden beside a glacially fed tributary of the Inn River provides a sunny counterpoint to some of the property’s darker, grotto-like interiors.
Art is everywhere and comes from the owners’ private collection. But one of my favorite spaces is the library, a reminder of the region’s rich literary past, with books by former visitors as well as Alpine wildflower, insect, and bird field guides. I borrowed the latter during my two-night stay to identify species on walks and swims.
Who’s Chesa Marchetta for?
Foodies, lovers of contemporary art, and nature buffs will find the pilgrimage here worthwhile. The inn is also pet-friendly; I spotted several dogs in the dining room during my stay.
Who it isn’t for
Guests who need large rooms, air-conditioning, or neutral spaces found in luxury chain hotels. Families are welcome, but the intimate setting and art-filled interiors may be better suited to older children rather than rambunctious toddlers. Sils Maria is an Alpine destination designed for quiet reflection, so die-hard urbanites looking for the scene of nearby St. Moritz may find it too subdued.
The location: Sils Maria
Lake Sils, a 15-minute walk from Chesa Marchetta, is a popular spot for summer swimming.
Photo by Dave Watts
If St. Moritz is the show pony of the Engadine Valley, Sils Maria is its more soulful counterpoint. The primary draw is the landscape.
Like villages and towns across Switzerland, Sils Maria is linked to a network of hiking paths: A trailhead sits across the street from Chesa Marchetta. Numerous other trails begin within a five-minute walk of the property. Lake Sils, where we took a midday swim among dragonflies and Alpine butterflies, is 15 minutes away on foot. The inn is a 12-minute walk from the Furtschellas cable car and close to cross-country skiing and snowshoe trails in winter.
The Italian border is about 15 miles away via a spectacular drive over the Maloja Pass into Val Bregaglia, the birthplace of artist Alberto Giacometti. Another local phenomenon is the Maloja Snake, a ribbon of clouds that emerges from the valley floor and slithers like a serpent across the lakes toward Sils Maria and sometimes turns pink and orange in the morning light.
The restoration preserved plenty of the building’s ancient bones: Imperfect stone walls, weathered wood beams, and river-stone pathways lend it an almost medieval quality.
The rooms
Original sgraffito, contemporary art, and natural materials merge in Chesa Marchetta’s guest rooms.
Photo by Dave Watts
Our room was compact but comfortable for a two-night stay; if we’d brought roller bags and the room had limited storage, a longer visit might have felt cramped. Two soundproofed windows offered a partial forest view over a slate-tiled roof. Each of the inn’s 13 rooms is different, with details including Romansh words etched into ceilings, and walls lined in fragrant arven (stone pine).
Ours had larch-plank floors topped with a chunky knit rug and low-slung antique cabinets that provided a charming, if impractical, substitute for a closet. Framed contemporary prints hung alongside original sgraffito, a traditional Engadine technique in which decorative designs are scratched into layers of plaster. The bed was especially comfortable, dressed in cream-toned natural linens and soft down pillows.
Like many high-altitude Alpine hotels, Chesa Marchetta has no air-conditioning, though we didn’t need it during our stay. Opening the windows for fresh air meant contending with some exterior light and pollen, as well as redstarts nesting in the eaves that woke us around 5 a.m.—which I imagine would be trying even for an avid bird-watcher.
The food and drink
Among the restaurant’s standouts is chef Davide Degiovanni’s light, airy gnocchi, based on his nonna’s recipe.
Photo by Dave Watts
Food is a highlight at Chesa Marchetta. The 46-seat restaurant is led by chef Davide Degiovanni, a Piedmont native who most recently cooked at London’s 5 Hertford Street. The dining room has banquette seating with wooden chairs that proved less comfortable and more prone to tipping than they looked.
The menu riffs on Northern Italian and Swiss cooking. Degiovanni’s nonna’s gnocchi, which I worried might be too heavy for summer, turned out to be remarkably light. Other standouts included crunchy focaccia with local lardo and chestnut honey, air-dried beef with pickled baby artichokes, charcoal-grilled lake fish, and ricotta cheesecake with fresh cherries. The wine list includes bottles from nearby Valtellina in Italy and Switzerland’s Bündner Herrschaft.
Breakfast, included in the room rate, was my husband’s favorite meal, with sheep’s milk ricotta, crisp pancetta, birchermüesli, local cheeses, Alpine butter, and freshly baked breads.
Vegetables and seasonal ingredients feature prominently on Chesa Marchetta’s Northern Italian– and Swiss-inspired menu.
Photo by Dave Watts
Staff and service
Before my stay, I’d heard from friends and family in the area—including my stepmother-in-law, who lives in nearby Maloja—that some of the international staff did not speak German, a problem since it’s located in a Swiss-German speaking Switzerland village dominated by Swiss-German tourists. We encountered this ourselves on arrival, when my husband asked in German where we should unload our bags and park the car, and the receptionist couldn’t answer. Everyone we encountered spoke English, but in this part of Switzerland, the staff’s lack of local-language fluency sometimes seemed incongruous.
The young staff were kind and attentive, though somewhat green, with occasional uncertainty around refilling wine, running plate service, and giving directions. We visited the hotels during the second week of the its second season, so some of these kinks may well be ironed out with time. The manager, meanwhile, was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and notably present throughout our stay.
Accessibility
An elevator reaches all three floors, but the historic property presents other challenges. Parking is in an underground garage about a 10-minute walk away, and the path to the lobby is cobblestone. Travelers with mobility needs should contact the inn at +41-81-838-40-40 before booking to confirm specific accommodations.
More to come
Artfarm acquired the art-filled Hotel Castell in nearby Zuoz, another Engadine village about 20 minutes by car from Sils Maria, in late 2024 and plans to reopen it in 2028 following a renovation. That hotel’s collection includes works by James Turrell, Pipilotti Rist, and Tadashi Kawamata.
When to go
The property closes from November 3 to December 10 and again from March 30 to June 10. Summer is brief but brings wildflowers, butterflies, hiking, and lake swimming; winter brings skiing and the Engadine’s famous “diamond dust,” ice crystals that glitter in the air. Late autumn is another compelling time to visit, when the valley’s larches turn brilliant gold.
Afar received a media rate for this stay. Our coverage is independent; the hotel did not review or approve this story.
