Grisons

Area and Variety

The Grisons form the largest canton in Switzerland. From the large barns of the Surselva (Rhine valley) to the masonry- wrapped houses of the Engadine (Inn valley), which with their bay windows and graffiti strike us as “typically Grison”, the architectural landscape is highly variegated. The buildings have been well researched, for instance in a volume from the series “Die Bauernhäuser der Schweiz” (The Farmhouses of Switzerland) or in classics such as “Alpwesen Graubündens” (Alpine Farming in Grisons) by the great Swiss folklorist Richard Weiss.

Room for More

In spite of its extended territory and its architectural variety, the Grisons is so far sparsely represented in the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum and is still being developed. The zone foreseen for this canton as yet contains only a single object: the hay barn from Vals (1212), an example of characteristic field barns.

A Complete Settlement

The neighbouring zone, group 13, Alpine Economy, does have a building quartet from the Grisons; the building ensemble (1311–1314) from Alp Champatsch in the Mustair valley. Following the construction of a new alpine barn there, the demolition of the old buildings was imminent. They were documented in situ in 1987–1988, dismantled and re-erected at Ballenberg. The alpine settlement comprises a small barn, a gigantic cow shed, a piggery and a roomy alp-herder’s hut – the white plastered masonry buildings with their tapered, inwardly narrowing window niches fit our image of the classic Grisons house.