Stockalperschloss

The most important historical building in Brig, up the hill from downtown, is the Stockalperschloss--"Stockalper's Castle"--a large mansion with onion-bulbed towers, built in the seventeenth century by Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper, a powerful merchant who tried to control trade over the Simplon Pass (just south of here) to and from Italy. It has a large courtyard in the center, which last evening was the scene of a wedding. We happened to come upon it while a brass band was playing there for the bride and groom!

The reason we were there is because for our four days in Brig we have been staying right next door, at the Oberes Wegenerhaus, Gaestehaus St. Ursula, which is an eighteenth-century merchant's mansion, turned into a combination old-nuns' home, old-people's home and B&B, run by the Ursuline sisters. Although some of the correspondence involved in setting things up was in German, it wasn't too difficult. We like it, even the Swiss music on the radio at breakfast, which brings Mary Joy fond memories of growing up in Monroe.