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1361Cheese Dairy from Kandersteg, Berne, 1780

Stone walls surround the large hearth of the open kitchen of the buttery.

Icon Museumsplan Nr.  1361 Alpkäserei aus Kandersteg BE

1700 Metres above Sea Level

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.

Die Alpkäserei aus Kandersteg BE (1361) im Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg.

Normal Construction

The wooden upper portion sits on a masonry foundation and the ground floor spaces serve as stalls. Sudden snow squalls can occur even in the summer; the livestock are also glad to find dry shelter here from long stretches of cold and rainy weather. People live and work in the upper storey.

Die Alpkäserei aus Kandersteg BE (1361) im Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg.

Cheese Cliché Live

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.

Das Handwerk Käsen wird in der Alpkäserei aus Kandersteg BE (1361), im Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg, gezeigt.

Graffiti

The side chambers are for the milk room, the salt bath for the cheese and a tool room. The chambers facing the valley are partly dwelling space. The herders and cheese makers scratched their initials and dates in the walls as was often done in spring camp and summer alp buildings, for instance in the house from Buochs (1371).

Die Alpkäserei aus Kandersteg BE (1361) im Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg.

Ballenberg
Swiss Open-Air Museum

Museumsstrasse 100
CH-3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz

+41 33 952 10 30
info@ballenberg.ch

Opening hours

11 April to 27 October 2024
10 am to 5 pm daily

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