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.

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

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.

In the Farmhouse from Escholzmatt (741), on some days, it is shown how to weave willow into simple baskets.

There’s a fire! At the ‘Brandboden’ our younger guests can pretend they’re in the fire brigade! When the bucket is filled with water, the hand sprayer is used. Using all their strength they have to pump enough water to put out the fire. When the bell rings, you’ve beaten the fire.

In the cellar underneath the granary (622), our younger visitors can play with the toys of their ancestors. Little ones can walk around on stilts, ride a hobbyhorse, look through children’s books, pile up building blocks, dress up rag dolls or play a game of ring-toss – now, how many of those old games do you remember?

In the hut from Champatsch / Val Müstair GR (1311) people cook as the farmer's wives used to do every day. Come by and try a bite.

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. 

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.

An elf and his helpers meet at the edge of the woods. They are the principle figures in the exhibition "Enchanted Forest" and lead the children from one theme to another.

There’s a lot to do in the cheese storehouse. Let’s do our bit. Take a seat on the milking stool and try your hand at milking, or move the cheese wheel to a new storage spot. Our little guests can carry the cheese on their backs using the traditional wooden frame.  Try on clothes as they were worn 100 years ago.

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

Join in: Make bricks at the tilery from Péry BE (141). During the season you can not only watch the craftsmen and women, but also shape a tile yourself for a Ballenberg roof.

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

The hand plane is used to finish wood surfaces, joints and edges. You can try out this tool at the workbench and take the pieces home with you. On the second table, found, leftover and collected materials for recycling are available for crafting. You can find ideas in the sketchbook on site, where you can also record your project for other visitors.

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.

Anything you cannot grow, harvest, process or produce yourself, you have to buy. And money is scarce. A pair of shoes with good soles and forged nails is a luxury item. Durability and quality in workmanship and materials are essential. In the shoemaking workshop, we trace the craftsmanship of this valuable product.

In the dark kitchen of the farmhouse from Madiswil BE (321) farmers’ wives prepared the daily food. They stood in the smoke for many hours at the low stove - an everyday life that is hard to imagine. The smoke from the hearth fire served to preserve sausages, bacon and other pieces of meat. These days sausages hang from the ceiling in smoke - you can purchase these ‘homemade’ sausages in the Ballenberg shop.

Flax and wool are regularly spun into thread in the dwelling from Blatten, Valais (1111) and the farmhouse from Wila, Zurich (641). Patience and skilled hands are needed to spin plant fibres or animal hair. Spinning is a painstaking task. However, sometimes people would come together for a chinwag while spinning.

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 Ballenberg Open-Air Museum houses the former workshop of the brothers Alfred (1882-1972) and Hans Stähli (1887-1979) in the Dwelling from Brienz BE (1031). Modern-day wood carvers have equipped a new workshop alongside the old one of the Stähli brothers, and here they demonstrate how the tradition of wood carving has withstood the test of time.

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. Visitors are free to touch and try out everything in this room, from strapping on a milking stool to milking a cow. Our younger visitors can dress up in the kinds of clothes people used to wear 100 years ago, or try carrying cheese around on their backs.

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.

Ballenberg has many stories to tell. Our guides will take you on a walking tour through the museum. Meeting point at 1.30 pm next to the Restaurant Degen (731). The tour is in german.