Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg

Discover something new every time you visit the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum. Start your Ballenberg day with a stroll through one of the 110 historic buildings. From the modest home of a day laborer to the stately farmhouse of a large Bernese farming family: take a look inside the parlors, kitchens, dining rooms and bedrooms and immerse yourself in the everyday life of the inhabitants of the houses. In 13 different house landscapes - from the Jura to the Central Plateau, the Ticino and high up into the Alps - you can see and experience the domestic culture and rural farming life of a bygone era. The residential and farm buildings on the Ballenberg could not be preserved in their original location and were therefore carefully dismantled and rebuilt on the 66-hectare museum site. In addition to the residential buildings, there are stables, barns, granaries, wash houses and drying ovens to discover.

Over 30 traditional crafts
Can you smell it too? The smell of freshly baked bread is in the air! Fine Ballenberg bread is baked every day in the Stöckli bakery in Detligen/Radelfingen BE. Look over the shoulders of the bakers as they go about their work or pay a visit to the alpine cheese dairy in Kandersteg BE and discover how fresh milk is turned into delicious Ballenberg Mutschli. It is not only food production that can be followed every day at the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum. Many old crafts are actively practiced in the workshops: Do you know what filoching is? How does traditional rope-making work? How is a beautiful Sunday hat made? The experts at Ballenberg present over 30 different traditional crafts, skills and trades. Many of the products made can be purchased directly on site in the craft houses and Ballenberg stores. Perhaps you will discover a new hobby during your next visit to Ballenberg? How about pottery, blacksmithing or alpine herding? Many of the crafts on display can be learned and practised in the course center next to the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum.