Ardez in the Lower Engadine – with an outstandingly preserved villagescape and typical Engadine houses. Located on a sunny terrace on the southern slope of the Silvretta chain, amidst an impressive landscape of lush meadows and mixed forests.Ardez is one of the few Engadine villages not to have fallen victim to fire or other forms of devastation since it was destroyed by the Austrians in 1622. The typical, around-400-year-old Engadine village has houses decorated with sgraffiti and paintings and is particularly well preserved. The church dating from 1577 is worth seeing, as are the ruins of Steinsberg Castle, built in 1206 on a rocky spur. The municipality of Ardez also includes Bos-cha and idyllic Sur-En.While the Inn flows gently through the wide Upper Engadine, in the Lower Engadine its course becomes wilder. In some parts it flows through rock masses as if through a gorge and at Ardez rushes and foams under the old stone bridge, ideal prerequisites for an exciting river-rafting adventure. Incidentally, the Inn is the only Swiss river to flow to the east, via the Danube into the Black Sea.