Experience Switzerland – The swiss Open-Air Museum
Experience Switzerland with all your senses in the unique Ballenberg Open-Air Museum: on the spacious grounds you will discover 109 buildings from all parts of Switzerland, over 200 farm animals and numerous historic crafts.
Ballenberg – in the heart of Switzerland
The spacious grounds of Switzerland's only open-air museum extend above Brienz, between the municipalities of Hofstetten and Brienzwiler, in the heart of the Bernese Oberland. Ballenberg is easily accessible by public transport as well as by private vehicle.
Buy your ticket online – Straight into the museum without queuing
Take a look into the living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and bedrooms and experience the everyday life of times gone by. There is always something new to discover on a visit to Ballenberg. Buy your ticket conveniently online: This way you don't have to queue at the ticket office, but can enter the museum grounds directly through the turnstile.
Living tradition
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 from 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 from Kandersteg BE and discover how fine Ballenberg mutschli are made from fresh milk. It is not only food production that can be followed daily at the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum. Many old crafts are actively practised 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. You can buy many of the products made directly on site in the craft houses and Ballenberg shops.
Eating, drinking, shopping
Home-style inns, snack bars and barbecue areas equipped with firewood and running water are available at the open-air museum. In addition, a wide range of specialities are on offer in the Ballenberg shops at the entrances and on the grounds.
Aktuell im Museum – Annual theme «On the move across the world»
A themed trail through the Swiss Open-Air Museum Ballenberg, together with the development organisation Helvetas.
Migration is and always has been a common, global phenomenon. The reasons for this movement were just as varied in the past as they are today – people move for love or work, or because of climate change. But whatever their reasons, they always carry hope with them.
At eight different locations around the museum, visitors can listen to stories of departures and arrivals from migrants past and present. The stations of the themed trail are located in seven historic houses and a central installation. There are also interactive games and quizzes along the way, so visitors can get involved and share their own ideas about what it means, around the world, to be ‘on the move’.
Who wears the trousers? Schwingen – the Swiss wrestling tradition
The strongest shorts in Switzerland? Compared to other types of wrestling around the world, the answer to this is Swiss wrestling shorts! They are the principal feature and symbol of Swiss wrestling. The new special exhibition at the Swiss Open-Air Museum recounts Swiss wrestling stories from the past and present using these unique shorts, along with a number of different items, including those from the estate of the two-time Swiss wrestling king, Karl Meli from Winterthur.
Ballenberg
Swiss Open-Air Museum
Museumsstrasse 100
CH-3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz
Opening hours
10 April to 2 November 2025
10 am to 5 pm daily
