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Themed days

On selected weekends during the season, our themed days invite you to immerse yourself in exciting craftsmanship and special themed worlds. Come by and rediscover traditional craftsmanship.

Themed days 2025

23 / 24 / 25 May - Wainwright
19 / 20 July - Fairytale Weekend
3 August - Bag printing
23 / 24 August - Hand broom making
6 / 7 September - Bottles in straw: reconstruction of an ancient craft
13 / 14 September - Preserving Sauerkraut
27 September - Goat exhibition of the "oberer Brienzersee" association
27 / 28 September - Unwinding, from cocoon to silk thread

The themed days take place in various buildings across the Swiss Open-Air Museum. Details can be found in the daily schedule.

23 / 24 / 25 May – Wainwright

Wheels, runners, axles, towing bars – it is hard to imagine now that the construction of vehicles was once the preserve of skilled woodworkers. As specialist craftsmen, wheelwrights were indispensable in rural areas and in towns. In the Smithy from Bümpliz (1052), you can take this opportunity to see how today's skilled craftsmanship impacts on historic items.

Neben der Schmiede aus Bümpliz ist 2018 im Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg
eine Wagnerei eingezogen.

19 / 20 July – Fairytale Weekend

Dive into fantastical tales from every part of Switzerland, listen to the various Swiss languages and dialects, and let yourself be whisked away into strange worlds by talking frogs or pots magically filled with chestnuts.

Jeden dritten Sonntag im Monat sind die Märchenerzählerinnen und -erzähler vor Ort und entführen Sie in eine sagenumwobene Welt.

3 August – Bag printing, a traditional printing technique

In the past, this artistic technique was widely used in the West Midlands, while flour sacks in eastern Switzerland were usually painted. We are reviving this traditional craft with hand-carved copies of original printing blocks at Ballenberg. Every print requires care, precision and power. That’s why a maximum of just two bags can be produced in one weekend.

If you want to get creative yourself, you can print the Ballenberg logo on a bread sack (for a fee) and then sew it together yourself using the old pedal sewing machine.

Mit handgeschnitzten Kopien von originalen Druckstöcken bedrucken wir Mehlsäcke im Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg.

23 / 24 August – Make a hand broom like in the old days

Straw hand brooms are roughly 30 cm-long hand brooms braided from special grass. In the past, they were indispensable in rural households, whether for cleaning the stove, cleaning shoes, brushing away snow or sweeping hard-to-reach corners. These practical household helpers were once made by farmers’ wives. The Ballenberg team keeps this traditional art of braiding alive and shows visitors how brooms are made using traditional methods.

Im Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg wird das traditionelle Handwerk Halmbesenbinden gezeigt.

6 / 7 September – Bottles in straw: reconstruction of an ancient craft

Until the late 19th century, protective covers for bottles were made of three intertwined coils of straw and sewn by hand. Later, braided and padded baskets made of willow-rods replaced this technique, and gradually the version made of straw fell out of use. The Ballenberg team is reviving this traditional straw craft and using it in the restoration of damaged historical straw bottles from the Ballenberg buildings.

13 / 14 September – Preserving Sauerkraut

At Ballenberg, at the start of autumn, the cooking team ferments a large pot of sauerkraut and look after it for 8 weeks. At the end of the season, this sauerkraut is ready and cooked for our guests in a historical kitchen. On some Saturdays in autumn, guests can also make their own sauerkraut. Our visitors have the opportunity to make their own sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut is a type of preservation technique in which food is preserved by means of lactic acid fermentation. Sauerkraut is not a vegetable as such, but is produced from white cabbage or cabbage. This vegetable with its long shelf-life and known worldwide for thousands of years, is the result of a natural fermentation process and salt.

Auf dem Ballenberg wird zu Beginn des Herbstes ein grosser Topf Sauerkraut von unserem Kochteam eingemacht.

27 / 28 September – Unwinding, from cocoon to silk thread

The precious silk thread is created from the cocoons acquired here. Watch how the silk thread is cleverly unwound from the cocoons and turned into shiny thread material. During unwinding, steaming hot water is used to dissolve the silk glue produced by the caterpillar and expose the thread, which is up to three kilometres long – sweaty, high-precision work.