Your benefit with the Berner Oberland Pass
- Discounted admission fee
- 25% discount and free travel with train, bus or ship to Brienz
Open-Air Museum Ballenberg - the open-air museum
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.
Over 200 farm animals
In addition to architecture, crafts and numerous exhibitions and activities, over 200 farm animals bring the open-air museum to life. Watch the leisurely but energetic oxen graze, watch the clumsy foal take its first steps, be teased by the cheeky goats or give the piglets a cuddle. Here and there, families of chickens cluck peacefully through the museum landscape or geese refresh themselves with a dip in the stream. There is always something going on in the pastures and stables at Ballenberg.
Ballenberg - the perfect excursion destination in the heart of the Bernese Oberland. Here you will experience:
- over 100 fully furnished historic buildings from all parts of the country
- daily changing craft demonstrations
- over 200 farm animals: from chickens to oxen
- attractive events throughout the season
- various activities for the whole family, large playgrounds and petting enclosures
- restaurants and barbecue and picnic areas on the grounds
Save with the Berner Oberland Pass
- 25% discount on the admission fee (individuals entries) for adults and Children (not valid on family tickets)
Information
Opening hours:
April 10 to November 2, 2025, daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The houses are closed in winter. A walk through the grounds is still possible.
Location
Ballenberg
Freilichtmuseum der Schweiz
Museumsstrasse 100
3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz
Public transportation
