Switzerland's largest regional nature park, protecting Alpine landscapes, biodiversity, and Romansh culture in central Graubünden.
Parc Ela
Parc Ela is the largest regional nature park in Switzerland, located in central Graubünden within the canton's Middle Bünden region. Named after the prominent Piz Ela peak that rises between the Albula Valley and the Oberhalbstein, the park spans around 659 square kilometers across six municipalities in two contrasting Alpine valleys. Its setting centers on the historic Alpine pass landscape of the Albula, Julier, and Septimer passes, where millennia of transhumance and trade have produced a rich cultural heritage of medieval castles, Romanesque and Baroque churches, and villages whose traditional Engadine-style architecture is recognized as part of the nation's cultural inventory.
The park's landscapes stretch from the deeply carved Schinschlucht gorge at around 745 meters to the glaciated summit of Piz Kesch at 3,418 meters, crossing virtually every altitudinal zone of the Swiss Alps. Above the tree line, extensive flat bogs serve as refuge habitats for rare plants and animals, while the Albulatal preserves a mosaic of hedgerows that shelter hares, smooth snakes, and a remarkable abundance of insects. Despite covering just over one percent of Switzerland's surface, Parc Ela hosts roughly one-third of the country's insect species, including two hundred that are considered threatened.
Parc Ela is also a living cultural landscape. Three languages are spoken within its borders, German, Romansh (the Surmiran idiom), and Italian, and the protection of Romansh heritage is an explicit goal of the park's mission. The combination of high-mountain ecosystems, traditional Alpine villages, paleontological treasures such as dinosaur tracks on Piz Ela, and internationally recognized engineering landmarks like the Albula railway line makes Parc Ela one of the most layered natural parks in the Swiss Alpine arc.
