Western Switzerland

Beyond the Language Barrier

The western part of the Swiss Midlands comprises the cantons of Fribourg and Vaud and extends down to Geneva. The likewise francophone cantons of Jura, Neuchatel and the Jurassian part of Berne belong geographically rather to the mountainous Jura. Dairy farming prevailed in the lower elevations of Fribourg, and in Vaud grain farming. The further you go to the south, the more you find extensive vineyards displacing former grain fields and small vineyard lots.

Stone and Timber

Six buildings and a mechanical threshing mechanism represent this region in the Open-Air Museum. The multipurpose house from Tentlingen in Canton Fribourg (511) is indebted in its form and construction to the nearby Bernese farmhouses. The grain storehouse from Heitenried (512), also entirely in wood, is a reminiscence of the once broad grainbelt. In the Geneva countryside and in southwestern Vaud, western European influences appear; stone construction is more common, as seen in the farms of Villars-Bramard (531) and Lancy (551).

Times Change

There are also smaller buildings among the big multipurpose farms and neat wooden storehouses: the oven house (513) and the cabbage cellar (514) – in their day widespread and important for rural life. Since the economic changes of the 1950’s they have often been empty and since torn down. The gin suffered the same fate, as illustrated by our example from Ecoteaux (534): introduced in the 1830’s as a splendid innovation, 100 years later it was made redundant by electric motors and disappeared. Even back then technical progress overtook its own children and made them look old and inefficient.