Gallery: June 3 — Ballenberg Museum 4

From the third day I visited the Ballenberg Museum. All the buildings on this page are from Canton Ticino.

This is a smithy from Bodio, built in the 19th century.

Stone and iron.

Old, cryptic inscriptions on the wall of a 16th-century house from Malvaglia.

This is a very old torba (granary) from Campo Vallemaggia, built in 1515.

A detail of one of the anti-mice stones.

That Ballenberg was able to move the whole Novazzano estate onto its campus is incredibly impressive.

It's an intriguing mix of masonry and wooden structure.

There's now a café operating in it.

A very elegantly-shaped (despite being sealed up) hearth.

Another sealed-up hearth, but a tiny one that has an air of mystery.

An upper porch. The amount of light that the bright sun glancing off the courtyard brings in is quite something.

For some reason I was having hell of problems keeping the camera strap out of shot today I mean here you basically cannot see anything else at all.

Lovely painted trim, reminiscent of Engadin traditions.

One outside wall of the estate.

Some rather spooky-looking vineyard frames.

An intriguing and attractive conglomeration of houses from Cugnasco.

A well-used hearth.

I think this blue stripe is fantastic. The little accents at the corners of the trim are nice too.

Inside, there was a small passageway to an attic that was open and mirrored, and in the mirror you can see this rocking horse hanging from the ceiling. Inexplicable: yes. Creepy: deliciously!

There's the camera strap again, upsetting an otherwise sweet shot of the houses with the Aare valley way down yonder.

Here's a clearer shot of the valley. You can see the Meiringen airstrip receding to the left.

This was a cute shaggy mule before the camera strap beheaded it.

AAAUUGHHHHH