1012 – Cheese Storehouse from Lütschental, Berne, early 17th Century

This building comes from the Hintisberg alp in the Lütschen valley. The alp itself lies in the Grindelwald valley at an elevation of circa 1700 metres (5,577 feet). A number of storage buildings of the same kind stand in the region, one of which bears the date 1608 – this cheese storehouse seems to be from the same period. The store[1]house has only a single room and holds the valuable product of the alp, the earnings of an alp summer.

The floor planks extend to form a small stoop, rather eaten away, indeed partly in ruins, before the entry door. It almost seems as though wind and weather attacked the exposed wood. The salted water used to wipe the cheeses dripped onto the planks. Wild and domestic animals licked the salty wood like a saltlick and in the course of time these polished and eroded forms appeared.