2024-01-17 17:07:48
The huts in the Bavona Valley don’t have iPhone chargers, microwave ovens, or even light switches, yet the locals have them just fine.
It can be a scary and medieval lifestyle for those who are used to urban affluence. In the Bavona Valley, located in the southern part of the Swiss Alps, there are still people who get by without the tools of today’s modern world. Cave-like dwellings similar to the hobbit dwellings of the Tolkien books or a fairy-tale city are hidden under and between the gigantic stones. Scattered everywhere are remnants of earthquake-like rockfalls.
Apart from that, the landscape is beautiful, almost magical.
“Nowadays we just blow up rocks in the way” Flavio Zappa said Houses of Switzerland-nak. “But this was not possible before. Therefore, people built their homes under them, above them, wherever they might.”
Less than 2% of the area, which lies in a beautiful trough valley and is surrounded by steep rock walls on both sides, is arable land. Agriculture was carried out in an alternative way by the resourceful locals. Only 1 square meter plots were used; terraced gardens were dug into the sides of cliffs – sometimes at dizzying heights – to grow food; while the rocks covered with soil, the so-called balòi, made it possible to plant small kitchen gardens.
“Rocky, steep and unforgiving” Zappa said.
Despite the harsh conditions, the inhabitants of the Bavona Valley live here of their own free will. According to Zappa, the locals do not see life without electricity as a disadvantage. They are used to burning wood and using candles when it gets dark. Most of them spend the winter in the towns below the pass, such as Cavergno and Bignasco, where more comfort and services are available. In summer, the animals are driven up to graze on the cooler, higher pastures of the Bavona Valley.
Both humans and animals have to cope with the small space they need to live. While cattle find shelter under huge stones in dug-out stables, people have built tall stone buildings to increase their real estate. There are houses, medieval churches, forges and whatnot. Traces of the settlements in the Bavona Valley go back 5,000 years, although the Roman necropolis to the south shows that the ancient European empire was already here in the first century BC.
Herds of goats provide fresh milk and hard cheese. The region’s now famous terraced “hanging meadows” helped the inhabitants reclaim land to grow rye, millet, potatoes, onions and hemp.
Roads did not reach the settlements until 1955, so many people emigrated from the area. Hydropower arrived in the Bavona Valley in the 1950s, but the majority of the people living in the settlements were happy to stay off the grid. The 12 municipalities of the valley gathered for a vote and 11 of the 12 decided not to join the network and prefer to live more simply.
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