Alpine hut, Mittelargenalpe

The alpine farm, dated 1641, was situated at around 1,700 metres above sea level above Au near Damüls and still has the character of a building from the High Middle Ages. Until the end of the alpine summer in 1977, the hut was used as a cow pasture by around 80 pasture owners from Schwarzenberg as a communal alpine pasture. The Mittelargenalpe was first used as a dairy in the 17th century.

As on many alps in the Bregenzerwald, the tasty ‘mountain cheese’ was produced on Mittelargen. In the years around 1970, around 200 wheels of cheese were produced on the Mittelargen alp in an alpine period of around 100 days. The 20 metre x 30 metre single-storey alpine hut is a log construction with a simple ‘Kopfstrick’ (head knit) and the outer walls are protected against the weather with a shingle cladding consisting of around 25,000 shingles. The 14 purlins of the gable roof are supported by six strong, timbered log gables so that the roof construction can withstand very high snow loads in winter. The approx. 540 m² roof surface was covered with around 50,000 shingles in five layers. The stables for 40 cows each are located on the two outer sides of the alpine hut. The centre of the building is the dairy, where around 750 litres of milk were processed into cheese in an 820-litre boiler every day during the alpine season. The work on Mittelargen, which began at 4 a.m., was once carried out by a dairyman and three to four employees. Around 60 cows had to be milked by hand twice a day.

There is a simple sleeping area for the ‘Älpler’ in the room under the roof. The ‘weather hay’ is also stored there as a food reserve for bad weather days. Supplies could be stored in a ‘box’ under the roof, which has its own roof. After the hut was transferred from Mittelargen to the open-air museum, a new alpine farm was built in 1978.