Chalet under the Chillon Viaduct in Villeneuve (Canton Vaud), 1985.
Chalet under the Chillon Viaduct in Villeneuve (Canton Vaud), 1985. Swiss National Museum / ASL

How the chalet became a symbol of Switzerland

The chalet symbolises Switzerland more than any other building. But it was visitors from abroad who turned the simple log house into a tourist hit.

Hannes Mangold

Hannes Mangold

Hannes Mangold is exhibition curator and head of cultural outreach at the Swiss National Library.

Why do we associate the chalet with Switzerland more than any other building? After all, not many people in previous generations lived in chalets. And even today, most people in Switzerland live in urban environments. Chalets, however, are mainly found in rural areas, where they feature in travel blogs and tourism adverts to showcase a Switzerland that is traditional and close to nature. This staging of the chalet as an advert for Switzerland is fitting from a historical perspective as the traditional wood building has always been closely linked to tourism. In fact, it took the outsider’s view to turn the quaint little wooden house into a Swiss stereotype.
Tourism adverts use the chalet to play with kitsch and Swiss clichés. YouTube / Switzerland Tourism

Chic

The chalet is a by-product of industrialisation. The 19th century saw more and more people leave the countryside for towns and the fields for factories. The associated economic and social upheaval brought increased mobility and tourism, with visitors from England and Germany in particular taking a shine to Switzerland. In the Alps they saw what appeared to be an untouched slice of nature, and a way of life that was backward yet – for that very reason – was also wholesome and healthy, and offered a welcome contrast to the smoking chimneys of modern cities. In literature, Johanna Spyri turned this perception into an international bestseller in her Heidi novels. Meanwhile, in architecture it found its internationally celebrated expression in the chalet.
Early Romantic depiction of Switzerland with chalet. Gabriel Lory Père, View of the Rosenlaui Glacier with the Wellhorn and Wetterhorn, 1823.
Early Romantic depiction of Switzerland with chalet. Gabriel Lory Père, View of the Rosenlaui Glacier with the Wellhorn and Wetterhorn, 1823. Swiss National Library
From rustic sheds and barns, right through to elaborately crafted wooden houses made from local timber – they all represented a life close to nature in the Alps, even if they were transplanted to towns in Northern Europe. In fact, the chalet’s success story began in the landscaped parks of European high society. Wealthy travellers wanting to bring a piece of the mountains back from their Swiss travels would have a ‘Swiss cottage’ built on their extensive grounds. As a model of Alpine wooden buildings, the chalet became chic.
A chalet in the UK: The Swiss cottage in Singleton Park, Swansea, was built in 1826 by Peter Frederick Robinson following a trip to Switzerland.
A chalet in the UK: The Swiss cottage in Singleton Park, Swansea, was built in 1826 by Peter Frederick Robinson following a trip to Switzerland. Swansea.gov

Quaint

This success didn’t go unnoticed in Switzerland. Swiss factories soon started sending out catalogues offering international customers semi-fabricated chalets to order, complete with customised decoration, balustrades and gables. Before the boom in cement and reinforced concrete radically transformed architecture around 1900, Alpine craftspeople found wood to be the ideal material for semi-industrial production. Through wooden elements that were prefabricated in Switzerland, the traditional log house was exported to the rest of the world. As architectural historian Marion Sauter explains, for several decades, the chalet represented highly innovative Baukultur. But it wasn’t only abroad that chalets had become popular. People in Switzerland were embracing them too. For instance, at the 1900 Paris Exposition, Switzerland presented an artificial rock face surrounded by a cluster of almost-life-size chalets. The world went mad for these quaint Swiss cottages. In popular tourist regions in particular, real-life replicas started to be built. The association of Switzerland and the chalet was due in large part to the fact that the Swiss were able to play on stereotypes and clichés.
The Swiss village at the 1900 Paris Exposition, photographer unknown.
The Swiss village at the 1900 Paris Exposition, photographer unknown. Brooklyn Museum Archives

Cosy

The major appearance in Paris in 1900 also marked a turning point in the history of the chalet. The end of the 19th century also meant the end of the innovative age of wood construction. From then on, it was all about concrete. The chalet as a wooden building became a motif of folklore. As such, it remained popular with both locals and travellers, but architectural interest gradually dwindled. In locations where landscape protection regulations required chalet-style buildings, sometimes a conventional concrete house was built and then covered with purely decorative wooden slats. It was only in the 1990s that interest in timber as a building material was revived, as people rediscovered the appeal of wood as a renewable and sustainable material in the context of the climate crisis. New technologies also made completely new applications possible. For example, even high-rise buildings can be made from wood. In the 21st century, wood has again become a construction material of the future. And what about the chalet? The traditional Swiss cottage has enjoyed something of a revival in recent years. For example, the town of Vrin in the Graubünden region of Switzerland won the Wakker Prize in 1998 for a modern take on the traditional wood construction method. In terms of making us think about resource-conscious construction and urban sprawl, the chalet raises some important and topical questions. At the same time, it remains a cosy place of longing and nostalgia, all over Switzerland. In that sense, it continues to reflect the vision of its European inventors.
In Flims Georg Nickisch and Selina Walder challenge perceptions with a chalet made of concrete. Refugi Lieptgas, Flims 2012.
In Flims Georg Nickisch and Selina Walder challenge perceptions with a chalet made of concrete. Refugi Lieptgas, Flims 2012. Gaudenz Danuser

Chalet. Nostalgia, kitsch and Baukultur

10.03.2023 30.06.2023 / Swiss National Library
What exactly is a chalet? Is it simply a symbol of longing for Alpine nature and therefore an invented concept or myth? In the exhibition ‘Chalet’, the Swiss National Library in Bern has teamed up with Gelbe Haus Films to take visitors on a light-hearted, informative and entertaining journey that explores this quintessentially Swiss building. To get a taste, check out the online exhibition. Or to get some background information, listen to Gegensprecher, the exhibition podcast (in German only).

Published on: 30.03.2023

Modified on: 31.03.2023

URL: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2023/03/how-the-chalet-became-a-symbol-of-switzerland/

More of: 20th / 21st centuryEconomyTourismCultureArchitecture

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