1024 – Hay Barn from Brienzwiler, Berne, 19th Century

This hay shed is one of the few buildings on the acreage of the Museum that still stands on its original site: before the Open-Air Museum officially opened in 1978, farmers were still working the heights of the Ballenberg. They were mowing grass, filling barns with hay and feeding their livestock in winter in stalls like this one.

A shed was added on the east side later. The roof covering the boarded-in frame structure was merely extended – simple as can be. There is a scurrilous detail: an old scythe serves as hasp for the door hinge. Iron was expensive, not the least scrap was discarded and even worn-out iron parts could fulfil a new task. A new hinge would have had to be ordered and paid for; money did not grow on trees. Such details of re-use are expressions of a scarcity society which time has since turned into its opposite.