1363 – Cheese Storehouse from Handegg/Guttannen, Berne, 18th Century
The cheese storehouse stood with a second storehouse of the same type on the Handegg Alp in the Grimsel region.
Low Loader
The building has neither the typically cubic granary form nor is it raised up on stilts for ventilation, as storehouses usually are. On the contrary, the low building is only raised a bit on the valley side – even at its original site it lay only a few stones above the ground. Its outer form is more reminiscent of a small alp hut than of an ordinary cheese storehouse.
Modest Décor
The simple shingled timber building with a protective roof overhang above the entrance is far removed from the representative character of the large storehouses in the Midlands. Nevertheless, the little cheese house from the Hasli valley has several decorative elements on the entrance side: brackets carry the slightly protruding roof, the gable wall bears a diamond frieze over its whole width. Copings and horse head brackets on the ends of the beams form further decoration.
The cheese storehouse stood with a second storehouse of the same type on the Handegg Alp in the Grimsel region. In the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum the small economic building is also used to store cheese: the inside space houses cooling units in which the Ballenberg-produced Mutschli (small cheeses) mature.
Ballenberg
Swiss Open-Air Museum
Museumsstrasse 100
CH-3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz
Opening hours
10 April to 2 November 2025
10 am to 5 pm daily
