From the second day I visited the Ballenberg Museum. This time I walked all the way through the museum to the east entrance and then backtracked through the Valais, Berner Oberland, Alpine, and Central Switzerland areas.
Gallery: June 2 — Ballenberg Museum 2
A lagoon with an interesting bird on a stump.
An 18th-century chapel from Turtig, Valais.
The interior, including the baroque altar, of the chapel. The wide contrast in complexity between the altar and rest of the building's elements can also be seen in chapels in the Lötschental.
A font nestled in the corner.
Other side of the chapel. Note the big plates of slate for roofing.
A little Valais mill building, evidently from 1872.
The correspondingly small waterwheel.
The interior of the mill. It is really only the size of a small shed in there, and I'm not sure it's high enough to stand up in.
A room of a Valais house that is maybe from Blatten. Note the juxtaposition of what appears to be the dining table with a cradle and a bed.
The outside of the Blatten house.
Barn area of the Blatten house. Cozy.
A view up the Aare valley toward Meiringen.
Super-telephoto of a waterfall across the valley.
A set of Alp buildings from Champatsch, Val Müstair, Graubünden, 1825.
Note the masonry corner posts with wood filling in between, something I would see quite a bit in barns in the Lower Engadin.
The façade of the farmhouse. On reappraisal after having seen the Lower Engadin, this has clear Graubünden characteristics, such as the masonry construction and the contrasting plaster window frame.
Interior of the Champatsch farmhouse.
There was a collection of stoves.
Then there was this curious partition room whose ceiling was open to the surrounding room and available for storage.
A beautiful way to brace a cantilever. Unfortunately at the moment I don't have the ability to identify this building, either through the museum website or through my full photo catalogue.
This is inside a Maiensäss from Buochs, Nidwalden, 1788. "Maiensäss" refers to a building intermediate in elevation between the valley settlements and the high alpine agricultural settlements (which are simply called alps, as in the Champatsch buildings above). I really loved everything about this room; I think it had something to do with the change in floor level within the already tiny space...
...as well as how everything was packed in just so...
...in addition to the rough sculptedness of the structure and thereby likewise of the space it contained.
I think the outside of the Maiensäss is lovely too.
Its chimney.
One of its windows, delicately accented by just a little painted outline.
