Courmayeur · Italy
How a house here is built
Observe an old house in these villages from the ground upwards and you will read how it worked. The ground floor is stone and was the byre: the animals stood there and their warmth rose. Above it, in timber, the family lived, often in a single room around the fire. Higher again is the hay loft, which in winter served as insulation between the people and the cold. The roof is of stone slabs, thick and extremely heavy, laid overlapping: they cost great effort but they hold metres of snow and last for centuries. Beside it, often set apart so that a fire would not take everything, stands the timber granary, raised upon stone mushrooms so that mice could not climb to it. None of this is decorative. It is a building that solves problems, one at a time.
Go deeper
Why the stone mushrooms?
Because a mouse can climb a post but cannot pass a flat disc that overhangs it. They are short pillars with a stone cap on top, holding the granary clear of the ground. It is a simple answer found across half of alpine Europe under different names.
How heavy is a stone roof?
Several hundred kilos a square metre, which forces a very strong timber frame underneath. It is why these roofs have modest pitches: a stone slab will not stay put on too steep a plane.
Is it still built this way?
Not out of necessity, but by rule and by taste: many communes require stone and timber in renovations, and there are still craftsmen who know how to lay them. The byre on the ground floor, on the other hand, is finished, and that is the part nobody misses.
Where it is
More stories in Courmayeur
- The Aiguille Blanche
- The Aiguille Noire
- Duke of the Abruzzi Alpine Museum
- The Brenva Spur
- The Guides' House
- Church of Saint Pantaléon
- The quiet col
- The Col de la Seigne