Intangible and living: traditional crafts in practice

The open-air museum not only preserves historical buildings from across rural Switzerland, but also the artisanal techniques with which they were built. For a day at Ballenberg, the focus will be on two traditional building materials, lime and wood, with experts demonstrating their craft and answering questions. There will also be guided tours of the newly constructed schoolhouse from Unterheid, where the tradition of building with lime lives on. Drop by and learn more about historical carpentry, the most intricate wood joints, millennia-old mortar recipes and the challenges we face trying to build just as we did two hundred years ago.

The event takes place at the schoolhouse from Unterheid (1071) and the neighbouring Smithy from Bümpliz (1052).

Programme

Craft demonstration: lime-slaking

• 11 – 11.30 am
• 1.30 – 2 pm
• 3.30 – 4 pm

Craft demonstration: traditional carpentry

• 10.30 am – 12 pm
• 1.30 – 4 pm

Guided tour of the reconstruction of the new museum building: the schoolhouse from Unterheid

• 11.30 am – 12 pm
• 2 – 2.30 pm