Museo: Museo Etnografico Walser Valle Vogna

Overview of the place

This section is dedicated to the sorroundings of the place.

Mount Rosa is the custodian of the story we are going to tell. From its 4634 m height, it has observed between Piedmont, Val d'Aosta and Switzerland countless events of people who have crossed its slopes over the centuries. Peoples on their way, moved by a spirit of enterprise, who over the centuries have never really stopped seeking the best for themselves and future generations. The first to transform the impervious mountain landscape were the Walser. In the 13th century, they left their homeland, the Swiss Valais, (hence the derivation of the name) to look for new land to till. Daring men of the highlands used their adaptability to make use of what nature could give them and transform the natural landscape into an inhabited landscape at previously unimaginable heights. The landscape that opens onto the Vogna Valley is still a living testimony of this. Its villages encapsulate the symbolic value and spirit, among the archaic wooden houses still perfectly preserved. Here, the combination of man and nature is its strength and defies the difficulties of the high Alpine terrain. The cultural identity of the people who still inhabit the place is imbued with knowledge. The village of Rabernardo is found along the Walser High Route. Here, the house museum now tells the attentive listener the story of these people. How they have demonstrated, great resilience to climate change and respect for limited natural resources with a simple but effective circular economy system.

Ground floor. The stable. Godu

This section is dedicated to the ground floor of the house.

The Stable. This is the heart of the house where men and animals lived together in a symbiosis necessary for survival. The house had no heating except for the animal source this room radiated heat to the upper floors and this is where the family would gather on long winter evenings. Everything happened according to the rhythms dictated by Mother Nature. Man and animal lived marking time with the rhythm of work. Even in the stable, one never stood still. Small handicrafts, fairy tales and stories were told to the children while the adults sitting opposite each other could argue about the various occupations that the community carried out together. All together because every activity here must be tackled with solidarity in order to withstand the harshness that the harshness of the weather and the mountain made you face. Everyone sat facing each other without hierarchies or social difference

Ground floor. Firehouse. Firhus

This section follows the previous point and describes more the ground floor.

Inhale... this agreable smell of smoke encapsulates the past of this room. The hearth had no chimney and the smoke was concentrated in this room in order to smoke the meat and keep it for a long time. This is where the cooking of food and the processing of milk, which was the basis of their diet as an important source of protein, took place. At the base of the hearth a hole in them put the fire in contact with the stone in the stable. (fornetto)

Ground floor. Laboratory

This section ends the description of the ground floor.

For the Walser, their home was their world. Here they had not only the rooms that were essential for survival but also the workshops where they produced everything they needed. Next door is the production of their typical footwear the scapin . a simple shoe made of very heavy wool cloth and sewn with hemp ropes. Wool and hemp are the basis of every fabric worked in these mountain areas.

External stairway

This section is dedicated to the external stairways next to the house.

We now ascend to the first floor via the external stone stairs and go to the second floor. Outside stairs but always protected by the roofs of the houses that criss-crossed to protect the passage during winter. There is no home or family without a system of community solidarity. The tiny rooms on this unheated floor served the purpose of not dispersing the heat received from the stable downstairs. Windows and doors were tiny at the expense of light, but the floor, co-inhabited by the hay deposited on the upper floor (Stodal - the barn), maintained a bearable temperature without any energy input. Now on the first floor, we walk through the traditional balconies (lobbie) a network of lines that form a unique architectural geometry. These racks were created to put the hay out to dry and keep it healthy during the winter. The lives of the animals and thus of the family itself depended on it. The balcony was an excellent sunlit outdoor space in which to work protected from wind and weather.

Second floor. Weaving. TUU

This section starts the description of the second floor.

Locally produced wool and hemp were the basis of the textiles used. With hemp, ropes and textiles were produced. The production and exploitation of animals or cultivated land was limited to the needs of the family, and when resources were greater, the families exchanged what was surplus for different kinds of goods without ever over-exploiting the land, which was managed according to a system of crop rotation and fertilised with animal dung.

Second floor. Badroom. Bedstuba

This section follows the previous point and describes more the second floor.

And the bedrooms. Occupied by several members of the family frog-ridden to sleep in the alcove wooden four-poster bed also created so as not to disperse body heat.

Second floor. Storage room. Spicher

This section ends the description of the second floor.

The home represented a micro-world created to produce and preserve what was necessary for the animals and the family. In addition to the care in the storage of fodder for the animals, the preservation of the food produced was essential. As we have seen, the Firhus also served as a smokehouse in the cellars with a suitable microclimate for storing cheese, and in the spicher (always located on the upper floors) the drying of bread. At the end of the balcony, the spicher is a room with a particularly dry microclimate; approach it and feel the sensations that the environment generates. This healthy environment is only recreated by the know-how of the builder, who has skilfully exploited the most airy and sunny environment to safeguard his bread and flour. In this place on the racks, sheltered from rodents, it dried but remained healthy throughout the winter waiting for the bake that would only arrive in the spring. The management of limited resources made it precious for the preservation of the family and the community, and every physical and spiritual effort was concentrated on maintaining what had been conquered with hard work. Now we retrace the balcony and return to the outside staircase... we ascend to reach the Stodal.

Third floor. Barn. Stodal

Thsi section is dedicated to the third floor.

Observe. The architectural structure still changes. No more cramped spaces, but wide entrances on each side of the house and quick direct access to the stodal without having to go through the staircase. Heavy loads have access to this floor, so it is useful to get there quickly and unhindered. Here there is no need to look for work the stodal is the barn, the threshing floor where cereals were threshed and the place where carpentry work took place indoors. The balcony widens to support the huge roof covered with stones weighing an astonishing 120/130 kg per square meter. It is he who preserves from the metres of snow and stabilises the building. Four storeys of house composed only of beams and cross-laminated planks.

External building: Oven

The last place is outside the house and is the oven.

The production of bread took place only twice a year in autumn and spring before the new sowing. The community oven was accessed by all the families together who contributed with their timber carefully accumulated during work in the woods. While the men brought the oven up to temperature, the women kneaded the rye flour bread in the stable (suitable environment as it was hot and humid) but it was eaten hard soaked in broth or milk. Before baking, the family engraved their bread with a propitiatory symbol to safeguard the product and recognize it when taken out of the oven.