892 – Grain-Drying Racks (reconstraction)

Giant Skeletons

To make frames for drying harvested grain, posts up to seven or eight metres high (Between 23 and 26 feet) linked by horizontal bars or slats stand in groups in the open fields. Diagonal braces of comparable length ensure the stability of these ladder-like structures. Sometimes they are covered by a narrow board roof. Other drying racks are mounted on stall walls, whilst these so-called field harps stand free.

Inner-Alpine Curiosity

Grain-drying racks were especially common in the centre of the inner alpine zone: in the Grisons most often in the Tavetsch valley leading to the Oberalp pass; in Ticino especially in the Leventina and the Blenio valley. They were hardly known in the Valais or in Uri. These structures, once characteristic in the landscape have largely disappeared today.

Ploughed Fields in the Mountains

The wish for autonomy is characteristic of the inner alpine region. In the valleys of the Grisons and Ticino field cultivation was not abandoned and, in contrast to the northern slopes of the Alps where typical herder farming arose (Gruyere, Appenzell), reliance solely on grass and livestock husbandry was avoided. Only after 1945 did the acreage of planted fields in these regions fall to practically nothing within a generation. Since we could find no original grain-drying racks we had to reproduce these from historic photographs from the Leventina.

Ripening After Reaping

The raw climate often hindered ripening in the field. The grain was harvested a little sooner and hung on the racks to dry. Wooden racks for hay (Heinzen) served a similar purpose, as did galleries on houses and sheds.