A Day at the Open Air Museum Ballenberg
Two weeks ago I had some visitors from Germany. It was the perfect occasion to visit some of touristic attractions that we all know of but haven’t visited in a long time. I took the change and went to the Ballenberg Openair museum with them, I place that I have visited the last time back in elementary school.
Ballenberg is located at the other end of lake Brienz. It is a beautiful park with many original buildings from the different regions in Switzerland, large gardens, many farm animals and even a small chocolate factory. Here are a few facts about this wonderful place:
- The park is divided in different swiss areas
- More than 100 original buildings are located in this 66 hectares park
- The oldest building a residential home from Schwyz built in the year 1336
- More than 250 farm animals live in the museum
- The collection holds over 45’000 different objects
- In the museum they produce and sell bread, sausages, jams, chocolate and much more
You can enter all the different century old buildings, they are all equipped with original object from back in the day. In every building you find information panels and the staff is super friendly and can give further information. There are demonstrations every day, I liked they showed how the oven to cold-smoke to sausages works (they sell the sausages in the shop). Next to the residential buildings they have stables, an old pharmacy, a forge, different mills, an oven house and many more.
... more insider tips
It is very interesting to see how they had (and actually still have) different building styles in the different parts of Switzerland and how they had different fields of work according to the different environments existing in Switzerland. For me it was very interesting to see how much time and labour it took to produce everyday objects that today we just buy in the supermarkets. Next to food items like flour and butter they produce towels, cups and lace amongst many other things.
Our day in the Ballenberg Openair museum was like a little trip through the whole country of Switzerland and through the past. It is more than just a museum and I want to highly recommend a trip to the Ballenberg to everyone! It is great too for families with children, there is a big playground and a petting zoo. There is a picknick place, a grill area and different restaurants. Dogs are allowed in the park and inside most of the buildings which was a plus for us as we had a little beagle with us. I really enjoyed the day and I will definitely be back soon!
Greetings from paradise
...Bettina
PS: I loved the chocolate with salt and the Ballenberg sausages with garlic. Don’t miss to try the fresh bread!
They have exhibitions and demonstrations every day – find more information here