Wild camping at the Silsersee: two communes, two languages, one identical rule

One lake, two communes, and the same article eleven in both

Wild camping at the Silsersee needs two communal rulebooks rather than one, because the boundary runs through the water. The swisstopo gazetteer says so on the label itself: the lake is filed as belonging to Bregaglia and Sils im Engadin/Segl together. Sampled on rings from 500 to 2'500 metres around the middle of the lake, the north and west come back Sils im Engadin/Segl and the east and south come back Bregaglia. The map point itself sits in Bregaglia.⁴

Usually that kind of split is where the interesting part starts, because the two communes have written different rules and the answer changes with the shore. Here it does the opposite. Both communes use the same model provision, and both gave it the same number.

"Das Campieren und das Abstellen von Fahrzeugen zu Aufenthalts- und Übernachtungszwecken sind auf dem Gemeindegebiet verboten. Der Gemeindevorstand kann auf Gesuch hin Ausnahmen bewilligen."Art. 11 Campierverbot, Polizeigesetz der Gemeinde Sils i. E./Segl: camping and the parking of vehicles for staying or overnighting are prohibited on the communal territory. The Gemeindevorstand may grant exceptions on application.

"All'infuori delle zone riservate a questo scopo (campeggi, zone camper), sul terreno comunale è proibito campeggiare come pure posteggiare la vettura a scopo di pernottamento. Su richiesta il municipio può concedere una deroga."Art. 11 Divieto di campeggio, Regolamento di polizia comunale di Bregaglia: outside the zones reserved for the purpose, camping on communal ground is prohibited, as is parking a vehicle in order to sleep in it. On request the municipio may grant a derogation.

Same scope, same two prohibited acts, same escape clause, same number. One is written in German and one in Italian because the Engadin ends and the Bregaglia begins at this lake, but as a camper you are reading one rule twice. That is why this article does not bother telling you which shore is which: it does not help you.

Sils locks it twice

On the Sils side the prohibition also appears in the commune's building law, which was revised in 2024, in the same words.¹

"Das Campieren und das Abstellen von Fahrzeugen zu Aufenthalts- und Übernachtungszwecken sind auf dem Gemeindegebiet verboten."Art. 109 Abs. 1, Baugesetz der Gemeinde Sils i.E./Segl 2024.

Two instruments carrying one rule is the same construction the neighbouring commune of Silvaplana uses, and it is worth knowing about because it closes the argument that a camping ban in a building law is really about permanent structures. Here the identical sentence sits in the police law too, where nobody can mistake what it is for.

What it costs, and why the farmer cannot help you

In Sils the general range is CHF 50 to CHF 10'000 under art. 22 of the police law, for breaches of the law and of orders based on it. That is the ceiling, not the everyday figure. The everyday figure is in the commune's fixed-penalty schedule, and it is the most useful line in this whole article.³

"20.f.1 · Unzulässiges Campieren auf öffentlichem oder privatem Grund · Fr. 100.-- · Art. 11 PG"The fixed-penalty row for unlawful camping. Note the words "oder privatem Grund", or on private ground.

Those four words settle the question people most often ask about Swiss spots: can I just ask the landowner? At the Fälensee or the Seealpsee that is the entire legal route. Here it is not, and you do not have to reason your way to that conclusion, because the commune wrote private ground into its own penalty line. A farmer's permission does not remove a public-law prohibition that already covers the farmer's field. The only body that can help is the Gemeindevorstand.

Art. 23a caps any fixed penalty under this law at CHF 300 and leaves the Gemeindevorstand to set the list, which is where the CHF 100 comes from. Anything not handled that way goes to an ordinary administrative penal procedure before the Gemeindevorstand under art. 23.³

In Bregaglia the structure is the same and the numbers differ slightly. Art. 22 punishes breaches of the regulation with fines up to Fr. 10'000 in an ordinary administrative penal procedure, and art. 23 provides for multe disciplinari, disciplinary fines, up to Fr. 500, with the municipio issuing the list and the person fined told of their right to object. Pay within 30 days and it is closed; object, and it goes to the municipio in the ordinary procedure, which is not bound by the list.²

Nothing above the communes closes it, and one zone that only bites in winter

It is worth being explicit about what is not the reason here, because the Upper Engadin looks heavily protected on a map and mostly is not, in the sense that matters to somebody sleeping out.

Canton Graubünden has no camping rule. Its police act and its nature protection act were read in full for this article and return zero occurrences of camping, tent, bivouac, lagern or overnighting. There is no cantonal ban to add and none to point at.⁵

At the lake the only federal layer is the landscape inventory. The point sits inside "Oberengadiner Seenlandschaft und Berninagruppe". That inventory binds federal and cantonal authorities in their own planning decisions; it is not a rule addressed to a person with a tent and carries no fine for one. Every other federal query comes back empty at the lake: no federal game reserve, no floodplain, no raised or flat bog, no mire landscape, no dry grassland, no park of national importance. Each ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id, which the service answers with HTTP 400 while the real layers answered 200, so the empty results are genuine.⁴

The nearest wildlife rest zone is real but seasonal and not at the lake. "Muott'Otta, Val Fex", no. 220.0, begins about 2'500 metres away and its protection period runs 20 December to 30 April. For a summer night at the water it is not in play. For a ski tour up the Val Fex it is the first thing to check.⁴

Where the ground is, since the shore is mostly water

This is a big lake and the map point is well out on it: profiled outward, the first dry land is 390 to 670 metres away depending on direction. The flat shore ground comes in at 0.9 degrees about 490 m to the south-east, at 1'799 m, essentially at water level. The other flat ground is the terrace above the north shore, 0.2 degrees at 637 m to the west, at 1'915 m, which is the Grevasalvas and Blaunca shelf.⁶

That shelf is the obvious temptation: open, level, above the road, with the whole lake below it. It is also squarely in Sils im Engadin/Segl, so art. 11 covers it exactly as it covers the shore. Height does not get you out of a commune-wide rule, which is the same lesson the Silvaplanersee teaches one valley step down.

How to do it properly

Ask, and ask the right commune. Both bans contain the answer. On the north and west shore write to the Gemeinde Sils i. E./Segl, whose art. 11 lets the Gemeindevorstand grant exceptions on application. On the east and south shore write to the Comune di Bregaglia, whose art. 11 lets the municipio grant a derogation on request. Say one night, roughly where, and how many of you. This is the whole reason the verdict is "it depends" rather than a flat no: the exception is written into the prohibition itself, in both communes.¹²

The valley has ordinary answers and they are close. Plaun da Lej sits 0.6 km from the middle of the lake on the north shore, Sils/Segl Baselgia 2.5 km at the north-east end, and Maloja 3.2 km at the south-west end where the lake turns into the Bregaglia. All three have the usual range of rooms and, in season, official pitches. If you want to be up high instead, the Val Fex opens 2.5 km to the south-east past Fex Crasta, and Lägh da Cavloc is 4.9 km south-west above Maloja, in Bregaglia.⁶

Ground rules on top of the law, because this shoreline is busy and photographed constantly. Keep off the Chastè peninsula, 1.9 km away, which is a small, heavily walked promontory and not a pitch. No open fire. And leave the reed beds and the shallow south-east shore alone: it is the part of this lake that is genuinely fragile and the part that looks most inviting at dusk.

One valley step down, the Silvaplanersee is answered the same way and for the same reason, so if you are working along the Engadin lakes you can plan the whole chain on one rule: the commune bans it, the commune can lift it, and nobody else can.

General rules for wild camping

This applies to both shores and to the terraces above them, and the fire rule is the ordinary one: gas stove, never an open fire, and everything carried out.

• No fire. An open fire has no place in the mountains. A gas stove is enough.
• Pitch late, strike early. Set up towards evening, gone again early. A bivouac is one night, not a base camp.
• Leave no rubbish. Everything you carry up you carry down, organic scraps and toilet paper included.
• At least 50 metres from any water for the big business, so you do not foul what people and livestock drink.
• Stay small and quiet. A small group, no speaker, no drone, dogs on the lead, and the alp staff's word goes.

Disclaimer

This article reflects my research and assessment to the best of my knowledge, as of August 2026. It is based on the publicly accessible and official sources linked below. It does not replace legal advice and is not a binding statement of the current legal situation.

Communal regulations change and cantonal wildlife zones are redrawn, so check the current version before relying on any of this, and follow instructions on site. The Bregaglia regulation is published as a signed scan; its article 11 was transcribed from the page image rather than from machine text, and the wording is quoted in full above so you can check it against the original. The terrain figures describe the ground and are not a safety assessment of your route. A genuine emergency bivouac in distress is a separate question from a planned camp. Anyone who spends the night outside bears responsibility for their own conduct and any consequences themselves. Hikebeast, Leon Helg and Saftladen GmbH accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of this text, and call on no one to break applicable law.

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Leon Helg

Swiss filmmaker and software developer. Spends his free time in the Swiss Alps and maps his favourite spots for Hikebeast. Posts as @leon.helg on Instagram and TikTok.

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