Walsermuseum

The Walsermuseum is in the hamlet Pedemonte (1205 m) a few kilometres from Alagna (Im Land) and is collocated in one of the most ancient mountain houses of the walser population that colonised the Higher Valley in the XIII century.

The museum has the biggest collection of material and tools, testimonials to the culture and traditions of this people,  Over the years the house had been modified, but it then was brought back to the way it originally looked and transformed into a museum.

The  house was organised on different levels. First of all there is a stone basement that used to be the cow-shed: the floor was made of stones and was crossed by a small duct where urines and manure of the animals was collected.

Attached to the cow-shed there was a room with a table and some benches. In the wall that divided the room from the kitchen there was a  stone oven (steatite or soapstone), that warmed up all the house together with the heat from the animals. On this floor there was also a kitchen, a room to process milk and a loom to work woolen and hempen cloths. On the second floor, made of larch wood, you had access to through stone stairs outside.

This was the "sleeping area" and here you can see a typical bed, a decorated cot, a wardrobe with clothes inside, toys of the children and a box with the marriage settlement. Another room on the first floor was used to store the tools of the farmer and carpenter, various objects and, today, the office of documents and  Walser publications.

Another small room was used to store the sausages, the bread that was baked only once or twice a year and cereales.

A balcony used to run along the wooden floors and it was covered by transversal rods where hay was put to dry, protected  from bad weather and at the same time keep the building warm. With a wooden ladder you were able to go up to the loft, where other forage for feeding the animals in winter was kept and would also protect the house from the cold. Finally the roof was covered by heavy “blatte” (schist stone) supported by resistant wooden truss. Rain-pipes made out of hollow trunks were used to collect water.

Time-table :

from September to October: Saturday. Sunday and holidays  14.00 - 18.00

from November to 20th December: Saturday. Sunday and holidays  14.00 - 17.00

Christmas holidays: from 10.30 to 12.30

and from  14.00 to 16.30

From 6th Jenuary to 30th June: Saturday. Sunday and holidays  14.00 - 18.00

July: every days from 14.00 to 18.00

August: every days from  10.00 to 12.00

and from 14.00 to 18.00

INFO: phone 347 1377404

To deepner (italian)

return