1361 – Cheese Dairy from Kandersteg, Berne, 1780

In 1780 Colonel Johann Rubin of Reichenbach had this hut built on the Unter-Allmen Alp above Kandersteg. The hut subsequently remained in the hands of the well-situated officer from the Kander valley. It was therefore privately organised, not a cooperative. A barn and a shed also belonged to him here. Most recently the Reichen family of Krattigen farmed the alp. A new building did not replace the old alp hut until 1981.

Stone walls surround the large hearth of the open kitchen of the buttery. The great cheese-making kettle hangs over the flames on a swinging arm, the room is black from smoke and soot. For 200 years cheese was made here, tasty little cheeses called "Mutschli". When the cliché "Switzerland = Milk & Cheese" fits anywhere, then here, where the dairy economy which characterised the life and landscape of the Alps for centuries can be experienced first-hand in the form of cheesemaking.