The Swiss Open-Air Museum is – finally – getting a schoolhouse – Construction diary schoolhouse Unterheid

The Swiss Open-Air Museum is – finally – getting a schoolhouse

The schoolhouse, a four-storey stone building with a slate roof, was built on the alluvial Aare plain in the Haslital valley in 1830. It served as a primary school for the children of the surrounding villages until the 1870s.

We first began drawing up plans to acquire the school building back in 2012. However, the idea of including a schoolhouse at the Swiss Open-Air Museum dates back much further, to around 1970, when the museum was still in the planning stages. The basic concept, back then, was to put together a representative collection of buildings from different rural regions of Switzerland and make them accessible to the public in one location. As well as traditional dwellings and ancillary buildings, the collection was to include the typical public buildings you might find in a traditional village. Naturally, this meant that a schoolhouse was a must. It took over 50 years, but we finally managed to locate and acquire a suitable property.

The historic school building goes on a trip: the dismantling process has begun!

It’s time! The starting whistle for the relocation of the historic school building from Unterheid has sounded, and the first steps have already been taken. The dismantling process has officially started, now that in-depth plans have been drawn up and bureaucratic hurdles overcome. Permits have been granted and there is nothing standing in the way of executing the project.

A building disappears – and a new chapter begins.

The first step was to demolish the annex, which is not part of the historic school building. The focus is now on dismantling the actual school building and the associated building inspection. The excitement is mounting: what secrets will the old building reveal? What stories are hidden in its individual components?

The first phase saw the pergola and the staircase be carefully dismantled. These pieces have been put into storage, with defective or missing pieces of wood being rebuilt already so that they can be reconstructed at a later date at the Swiss Open-Air Museum. The roof and interior are next on the agenda. From mid-June, the masonry will then be removed brick by brick – a precise and challenging task.

The foundation is in place in its new home.

In parallel with the dismantling process, foundations were laid at the new location in the eastern part of the Swiss Open-Air Museum. In the future, the school building from Unterheid will be rebuilt in the Bernese Oberland area, next to the pottery in the smallholder’s house from Unterseen, Bern (1051). However, the building needs a stable foundation before it can be relocated.

At its original location in Unterheid, the school building stood on soft ground in the alluvial area of the Aare and rested on a stone foundation. Over the course of time, this has led to substantial sagging on one side, resulting in a large crack in the masonry. The soil at its new location in the Swiss Open-Air Museum has different characteristics – some parts rocky, some earthy. A robust concrete foundation was chosen to prevent it from sinking unevenly. Made from concrete strips, this is intended to counteract the challenges of the uneven subsoil and provide the historical building with the stability it needs.

Dismantling and reconstructing a historical building are more than just technical processes – they are a tribute to the craftsmanship and history that is embedded in every stone and every beam. We look forward to following the progress and discovering the stories this building tells.