Kirchplatz bei der Kirche San Vittore Mauro (Station 7 Rundgang Hildesheimer)

"I want to describe a square – not its beauty of course, but the parts that compose it: It is a small square in the center of Poschiavo, a grandstand with many corners, which can be accessed by a few steps, surrounded by the following buildings: The church of San Vittore in robust rustic Gothic style. The oversized bell tower, although of impeccable pure Romanesque style that overlooks the town, colossal as a stone cry: "Wayfarer, you are in the south!" – "massive" would be the word in the tourist guide, or "sumptuous". A private house that is wedged with tiny, graceful overhangs on both sides and gargoyles similar to fantastic animals with long necks. The Ossuary, a horrido-graceful memento mori with a baroque window and masterfully worked railings, behind which one skull next to the other stand carefully arranged on shelves and two painted coffins hang as handy requirements. The Catholic parish. The cloistered walls of the convent of the Augustinian Sisters; above the walls, a slender bell tower with a gleaming copper onion dome; above the bell tower, the rocky slopes of the mountains and the coniferous forests; above the slopes, the white marble of Sassalbo with its three thousand meters; and above all, the sky. And to animate the picture, children playing ball, mothers knitting stockings and, in certain seasons, tourists photographing as well as entire Swiss-German school groups who sit drawing and marveling at the beauty of the most remote corners of their homeland. The reader who is confused by this picture has understood it well."

The convent of the Augustinian Sisters mentioned by Hildesheimer houses a permanent exhibition of 22 of his collages. The exhibition can be visited from Monday to Friday, from 10 to 12 and from 15 to 17. Free admission only by telephone reservation (+41 79 741 05 70).

Source: Erlebnis des Unerwarteten, in Merian 14/8, 1961 (trans. Monika Thurner).