POST 5. OLDEST HOUSE

This house, located above the road, is considered to be the oldest in the village. It dates from 1702, giving it a more than respectable age.

It provided shelter for two families, or two “fires” as the local expression had it in the nineteenth and again in the early twentieth centuries..

The typical Anniviers house is built of wood and stone. The wooden part, made with horizontal larch planks, in principle is laid on stone foundations. To the rear, on the mountain side, rises the masonry section containing the kitchen. Besides the bedroom, in the wooden part and the kitchen, in the masonry section, there is the basement located in the stone base of the house, and the attic, in the space between the bedroom ceiling and roof.

The construction of a basement (always in stone) was particularly good. The walls, of a thickness of 80 cm and more regulate the temperature inside (8-10 degrees Celsius) between the cold season and the summer heat. The humidity was also optimal.

A pink-coloured plaster that can be seen in some constructions was due to the addition of beef blood to the mixture that was meant to give strength to the plaster making for a better adaptation to humidity.

A balcony was rarely built on the facade looking downstream, but in principle, on the sides or behind.

Before the arrival of glass windows, dried and stretched pig bladders were used, which is why the windows were made of small squares.

Each household in Anniviers generally had three lodgings : the most comfortable in the village (main residence), a smaller one in the valley of the Rhone, and a rustic one in the mayens.

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The next location is the house to the left of the lane. Observe this group of houses. On the left was a shoemaker.