723 – Hay Barn

Typical Structure

This tightly framed stall in block timber construction stands on a quarrystone foundation. The wall timbers of the barn in the upper storey are spaced apart to allow air to circulate in the hay as in the barn from Sachseln (712). Unspectacular in form and size and devoid of decoration, this field barn is typical not only for the Schächen valley: one encounters them by the thousand in Central Switzerland.

Relay Station

Field barns served alpine staged farming: in the rhythm of the seasons farmers pastured their livestock at varying elevations, letting them graze the meadows in spring and autumn and feeding them hay from the valley in winter. The barn from Spiringen is such a field stall.

Fading Demand

This stall, however, stood in the village and was the property of the “Post” inn. It was by no means the main barn. The penultimate lessee, Victor Herger, kept 3 cows and 5 or 6 calves there in the 1950’s. The final lessee, the factory hand Benjamin Schuler, kept 5 to 7 goats and a few sheep there. In 1984 it was dismantled to make way for a roadway correction.