Daily schedule

From listening to testing your balance, from building sandcastles to hide-and-seek – the playground at the ‘Alter Bären’ Restaurant (311) on the edge of the forest is a fun place for children of all ages. On the treetop path, you can see the world from above and then whiz down the slide at high speed.

Make your own butter: Shake cream until it turns into butter. If cream is shaken or beaten for long enough, it turns into butter and buttermilk. Try it – and enjoy your homemade butter on bread.

The individual roof tiles are heavy, but they keep out the rain for many years. Have a go yourself and help re-roof our houses. Use the spray can to test whether your roof is watertight.

In the year 2000 the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum took possession of a complete hat maker's workshop. Its new home is in the Dwelling from Villnachern AG (211). On certain days of the week it is possible to watch the hat makers at work.

You can touch the exhibits here – and join in fun, hands-on activities too. Feel free to explore the entire building. Depending on the day, experts will help you learn how to weave straw, do woodwork or even print bags.

In olden days baking your own bread was of great importance in order to put food on the table. Farmers’ wives would bake their bread in the oven houses, which were often owned by the local community. In the baking room of the Stöckli from Detligen/Radelfingen BE (333) the Museum’s bakers fire up the wood-burning oven every day in the early morning.

There’s a lot to do in the cheese storehouse. Lend a hand and help store the cheese wheels. Our younger visitors can carry a bundle of dry twigs on their backs using the traditional wooden frame. Try on clothes as they were worn 100 years ago.

The precision and dexterity required for shingle-making is demonstrated at the Brandboden when the museum’s shingle makers are at work there.

Women and children once twisted straw right here at the farmhouse from Tentlingen. This was intricate work that required skilled hands. A hundred twisted cords would be exchanged for a loaf of bread – a modest yet welcome reward for mountain dwellers who had no other source of income in winter.

Younger visitors can have a go at rearranging the Swiss Open-Air Museum – thanks to the magnetic pieces!

In the hut farmhouse from Villars-Bramard, Vaud (531) people cook as the farmer's wives used to do every day. Come by and try a bite. 

Sewing using a machine but zero electricity – is that possible? Come and try it out for yourself in the vintner’s house from Richterswil, Zurich (611).
Cottage industries were a vital source of additional income for large sections of the rural population. Individual family members and sometimes entire families would work as spinners, weavers, embroiderers and seamstresses at home and later in factories. They worked for an employer who delivered the materials and later collected the finished products. Aprons and shirts are examples of goods that were sewn. Experience this process up close and have a go yourself in the vintner’s house from Richterswil. 

In the cellar underneath the Granary, Wellhausen (622), you can play with the toys of your ancestors. You can walk around on stilts, ride a hobby horse, look through children’s books, pile up building blocks, dress up rag dolls and play a game of ring-toss – who still remembers those old games and would like to try them out?

Bats feel right at home in this building. Use the webcam to observe a colony roosting and learn about the unique characteristics of these nocturnal animals. Children can change their perspective in a playful way and discover the world through a bat's eyes.

How does the silk worm moth spin its precious silk cocoon? Find out how the extremely thin silk thread, which is up to 3 kilometres long, forms a cocoon.

The hobby workshop in the Dwelling from Matten BE (1021), invites you to do it yourself.

You can use a hand plane to finish wood surfaces, joints and edges. You can try out this tool at the workbench and take the pieces home with you. Found, leftover materials collected for recycling are also available for creative projects.

In the Small Farmhouse from Unterseen BE (1051) there is a small pottery workshop, just like the ones found in villages in the old days, when pottery was made by hand in small family enterprises. All the various stages of production are to be seen at Ballenberg, from the turning on the wheel, to the pre-firing (bisque firing), to the glaze firing, to the engobe decoration. The potteryware can be purchased directly in the pottery workshop.

The regular ring of a hammer can be heard from a distance as one approaches the Smithy from Bümpliz BE (1052). Courses run by the Ballenberg Course Centre are often held in the old village smithy.  Watch our blacksmiths at work at their powerful craft.

The women weavers in the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum regularly sit at the 200-year-old loom in the weaving cellar, letting the shuttles glide across the warp. In the weaving cellar it is possible to purchase handwoven products such as the legendary “Znüni”, bread bags with the Haslital pattern, or towels and linen Kirschstein bags.

Here you can practise milking using a wooden cow. Settle yourself on the milking stool and work carefully, as this is the only way to fill the bucket.

The cheese dairy in Ballenberg functions on an almost daily basis. In House (1361), the Alpine Cheese Dairy from Kandersteg BE, visitors can not only look at the various bits of apparatus needed for cheesemaking but also follow the process itself as it happens.

The table in the old living room and bedroom is a spot for lively and sociable exchanges. Take a seat – there’s coffee and tea ready for you.

Here, you can get a hands-on insight into our rich Alpine culture. Don a pair of Swiss wrestling shorts, learn how to yodel, dress like they did 100 years ago or use a wooden frame to carry cheese. Fun for young and old.

The pounding machine from the Bone mill from Knonau, Zurich (692) is almost entirely made of cast iron. The waterwheel rotates a shaft with eight metal arms. They lift the heavy iron pins, which fall onto the boiled bones under their own weight. The blows following one another in mere seconds crush the boiled bones until the catchment trough contains nothing but meal.

The loud puffing and wheezing in the Sawmill from Rafz ZH (691) can be heard from a long way off. The regular rhythmic noise of the machine is an almost daily feature at the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum when the sawyers start it up and begin sawing wood the old way. The drive mechanism is a showpiece in itself. The power is delivered by an overshot water wheel. The water shoots out of the channel from above, falls on to the wheel blades and sets the wheel in motion. The drive power is transmitted to the frame saw in several stages by means of giant cog wheels and transmission belts.