I don't know what it is about Swiss fountains for me. I suppose they remind me of a simpler time. Well, maybe not simpler. Having to draw water from a fountain and carting it back to your home is not exactly simple. Nor is carrying a pile of clothes in your arms to the fountain basin, dunking them in water, and beating out the dirt and sweat against a stone. I suppose I mean by simpler, really, more basic. A woman, who would normally be the one washing, would carry the clothes of her husband, children, an old granny, perhaps, and her own, down to the communal fountain. Other women may be at the fountain with whom she could talk about local events, personal concerns and other people who are not at the fountain. Children may be running about or splashing water at each other, or taking a dunk themselves. She could feel the coolness of the water against her skin, the hardness of the washing stone, and the warmth of the sun.

We, on the other hand, are more isolated from our tactile world. This is often a blessing of course. You won't find me nostalgically washing my clothes at local fountain. But we have also lost many things in our mechanized, increasingly environmentally-controlled world. I suppose that is why I like Swiss fountains. They are storytellers. They tell me of a time when women had conversations together while washing clothes, and had an immediate sense of a stream-fed fountain, and the warmth of a day and the coolness of a gentle breeze.

Which all brings me to this fountain. For want of a better name I call this the triple basin water fountain. Located just off a road that goes out of the village of Valangin this fountain is easy to miss - you are too busy looking ahead of you on this rural road to notice a fountain off to the side.

The fountain is very basic. This fountain does not show civic pride as many other Swiss fountains do. This fountain is utilitarian.This is a blue-collar fountain.

The smaller basin would be used for washing as can be surmised from the two slanted washing stones standing next to it. As you can see in the photographs, one stone has been moved three or four feet from the washing basin to make room for a large round drain embedded in the cobblestones. The drain would have been put in after the fountain was no longer used for washing. The local women would never have put up with their washing stone being moved so far distant from the basin.

Considering the two large basins I suspect that this fountain was on a farm or some other enterprise that required a lot of available water and space. Perhaps in the old days, besides housewives washing their families' clothes, one would find farm animals, horses and oxen perhaps, lining the walls of the basins, their heads bent over for a cool refreshing drink.