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Saint Bernard Museum in Martigny


The sign for the train at the Lausanne station, the third train in my itinerary after the Brugg-to-Bern, and Bern-to-Lausanne stretches. Vevey (where Charlie Chaplin lived until his death) and Montreux (home of the Montreux Jazz Festival) are on Lake Geneva. Bex is home to the oldest salt mine in Switzerland.


The museum is located in a former military warehouse. It was a rainy day when I visited, so the usually grand views of the mountains are missing.


One of the windows at the museum.


Inside one of the pens in the kennel area. They're mostly glass sided, and set up in a way that the visitors can't come into contact with the dogs.


Resting.


The Great St. Bernard Hospice, an article in an early edition of Scientific American.


A section is devoted to the representation of the dogs in cartoons.

Addendum: Claude, one of my readers, mentioned Barry (1800-1814) and I realized that I should have said something about him. He's possibly the most famous of the rescuers, with at least 40 rescues to his credit. Below is an image of a poster for Fondation Barry, an organization that owns the kennel of the hospice of the Grand Saint Bernard.


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6 comments:

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

the resting dog image is so adorable........feel like petting him :)

claude said...

I like this rescue dog. He has a good face.It reminds me when I was little girl having watched a movie (I think the name of the dog is Barry). He was trying do rescue some pepole from snow.I was sad about the dog and I was crying ...Story too sad for me !

Lavenderlady said...

This is so interesting...thank you for sharing these extra photos with us and the story.

All Blog Spots said...

nice blog

Anonymous said...

Is there anything there besides the museum? A town? Nightlife? Hotel?

Z said...

There is the town of Martigny with a nice art museum, the Fondation Pierre Gianadda. I think this blurb from the Rough Guide is quite accurate:
http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/valais/martigny.html