Open Doors Engadin - Kirche San Gian

A visible indication that the church of San Gian was built in Romanesque times is the small tower, which is today connected to the entrance front of the sacred building and projects about 60 cm into the nave.

The buildings, modest in their architectural appearance, as were the rural churches of the Grisons in the High Middle Ages, gained monumental impact through an exposed, dominant position in the landscape. The recent dendrochronological examination revealed that the building must have been erected shortly after 1300. The late Gothic pointed helmet of the mighty bell tower was destroyed by lightning in 1682; the roof was not restored because a new bell tower had existed in the village of Celerina since 1665.

The murals of San Gian are charming in their interplay with the painted wooden ceiling, which, with its pointed arches and massed works, is entirely indebted to the different formal language of the regional late Gothic.