Muttenz History

The Ancient Village

As of today, the ancient farm houses form the center of the town. They are lined one next to the other stretching out into five directions from St. Arbogast church.

In the summer, many people keep Geraniums on the outer window sills, which gives those neat houses an even more cozy touch. The parsonage, built in 1534, is one of the oldest buildings still inhabited (by a Minister and his family).

The layout of the ancient farm-houses is reasonably alike. The low ceilings and low and narrow doors are typical. Originally, most houses were but one story high, covered with thatched roofs. The second stories were built later and the roofs covered with tiles. The dwelling-house, barn and stable form one complex under one and the same roof. In olden days, the toilet used to be out in the barn, next to the pig's stable. Until a few years ago, the manure was kept in a square yard in front of the cows' stable. It was the farmers' pride to keep the heap neat and square. Prior to a feast or religious holiday, the farmers used to make a special effort, braiding with straw and much skill on the sides of the manure heaps.

The barns had a huge door, allowing for the hay and crop cart to pass under. Cut into the large door is a small one for the people to go through.
From the barn, there is also an interior connecting door to the dwelling house, and on the opposite side one to the stable. When the clay floor of the barn had become worn out from the many steps passing over, the farmer would cover it with a new layer of clay and invite the children of the neighborhood to trample it even, an activity that used to be great fun.
In the evening, an accordion player animated the youngsters to dance. They would pleasantly stamp the floor into a harder and more even surface.

Medieval Farmhouse

The dwelling-houses were equipped with huge cellars, where people used to store their vegetables, the bread and the wine. All the farmers maintained their own grape-yards and made their own wine. Many a farmer found his wine production more profitable than the rest of his crops. In this area, you find -as of today- all-round farms exclusively, originally serving the purpose of feeding their own family. Farmers who produced wine in excess of their own need, sold it to the local pubs or, if they felt like pouring it out to guests themselves, nailed a fir-wreath to their front-door. This meant that one was welcome to go in and buy a drink of wine.

The main floor of the dwelling house consisted of the kitchen, a large living room and the parents' bed-room. In the living room, against the kitchen wall, stood the 'Kachel-ofen', a tiled stove with more or less elaborate decoration. The tiled stove was heated from the kitchen through a small iron door, thus keeping the living room clean from ashes and soot.

The doors leading from one room to another were purposefully excessively low and narrow, forcing people to fold up into a humble posture.

The kitchen was the center of both house and activities. The house was entered through the kitchen door. The animals, in the stable, were placed in such a way as to face the kitchen. From the kitchen, one got into the living-room - and from there into the parents' bedroom. Also from the kitchen, the stairs lead to the upper bedrooms of the children and the attic. The kitchen chimney served at the same time as 'smoke-chamber' for sausages, ham and bacon. Through it, raindrops occasionally fell down into the soup pot. A saying went: 'When you throw a snow ball into the chimney, as certain as anything an irritated woman will appear in the kitchen door'

At a later period, when the wood-stoves gave way to electric ones, the chimneys were walled up and the kitchen grew both warmer and cleaner. However, the 'smoke-chamber' was gone, too. Proper smoke rooms had to be installed in the attic. The kiln for the distillation of spirits was, in many houses, also located in the kitchen. No wonder, the kitchen used to be black all over from soot.

The waterstand, made out of copper or wood, covered by a lid, was also part of the kitchen inventory. It usually held 20-30 liters of water that was brought in from the fountain. The sewage used to be gathered in a tub beneath the waterstand and was emptied as occasion demanded. The waterstands gave way to proper sinks in 1895, when the water-pipes were laid. The pride of every house-wife were copper or brass pots and pans shining from the kitchen walls.

During the coldest period of the winter, the hens, fenced under the staircase, were allowed to live in the kitchen.

Usually, the tiled stoves in the living-room were a huge construction often beautifully painted and shaped into a bench or rather two benches on two levels, where the family and the house-cats liked to warm their bodies. The stoves held a small compartment, where apples were roasted - a delicacy! and where the canvass sacks, filled with cherry seeds, were warmed up. Those sacks kept the beds warm all night through.

Each living-room had a niche or a board over the door where the house Bible and hymn-books were kept. A petrol lamp lit the family table. In 1904, the petrol lamps gave way to the electric light. Besides a solid table and a sofa, a chest of drawers was the most important piece of furniture. Well-off families would also have a secretaire with a secret safe, as well as a cupboard. Often the living-room, holding a double bed, also served as bedroom for the parents. Families, as a rule, counted between 8-18 heads, thus making it necessary to install sleeping facilities wherever possible. A cuckoo-clock would tick from the wall announcing the hour. The walls were decorated with birth and confirmation certificates, wedding wreaths and other souvenirs cherished by the family. Epigrams, religious and patriotic pictures, pinned to the walls, revealed the spirit of mind prevailing under that particular roof. Besides the kitchen, the living-room was the only room that could be heated, thus the whole family gathered there in the evening. Story-tellers were welcome guests to break the monotony of the evening leisure, also neighbors dropping in and joining in the singing of the family.

People of Muttenz called their bedrooms 'Chammere' - chambers. Households of a certain standard kept a wash-stand with ewer and wash-basin in the bedrooms and had beds with regular mattresses. The majority of beds, however, just held a sack of straw or dried leaves, covered by an eiderdown and a sheet. A heavy featherbed in a red and white checked case served as cover. Two to three children used to sleep in one and the same bed. Large families also used the attic, right under the roof, as bedroom. There, it often happened that rain and snow would wet the beds - the cold wind blowing in through the woodwork of the roof freezing both featherbeds and tips of noses into icicles.

There was no room for the 'little place' - the 'Abort' -within the Muttenz farmhouse. 'Ab-ort' means off-room, and according to its meaning, it was away from the dwelling-house, namely in the barn. When the water pipes were laid to the houses, the first water closets moved into the dwelling-houses.

The Village River

The village river - before being canalized in the 1930s-originally served many purposes: at the upper part of the village, it kept a mill in operation. Further down, it used to water meadows and fields. Within the village, where it was flowing alongside main-street, it served as washhouse to the farmers' wives. From the adjoining houses, stairs descended to the river. A number of little bridges connected the river banks.

Occasionally, after a heavy rainfall, the industrious river turned into a threat to both people and cattle. Swelling into a torrent, it would flood houses, stables and fields.

[ Back ] [ Next ]