Woodcarving is an ancient folk art. Old buildings, furniture and apparatus are examples of the artistic flair and ability of our forefathers. This sort of woodcarving was born out of a pastime practiced especially by mountain farmers to pass the long winter evenings. The proud results of long endeavours must have led to the production of continuously more exquisite and intricately carved ornaments. Out of this folk art grew those masters of woodcarving, whose works, in old choir stalls and church statues for example, can be admired as a form of our cultural heritage.
Christian Fischer, a turner with an artistic flair, is considered to be the founder of Brienz woodcarving. Before 1820, he began to while away the long winter evenings by carving figurines and objects for everyday use. During the following summers, he would sell the carvings to tourists. Little by little, other woodcarvers joined him and so, in the course of the next decades, a trade of economic importance was born which still plays an important role in the village today.
Woodcarving is an ancient folk art. Old buildings, furniture and apparatus are examples of the artistic flair and ability of our forefathers. This sort of woodcarving was born out of a pastime practiced especially by mountain farmers to pass the long winter evenings. The proud results of long endeavours must have led to the production of continuously more exquisite and intricately carved ornaments. Out of this folk art grew those masters of woodcarving, whose works, in old choir stalls and church statues for example, can be admired as a form of our cultural heritage.
