Day 7 – The Swiss Open Air Museum At Ballenberg

A steady rain and drizzle didn’t stop us from getting out today. We rode a Postal Bus from Brienz to Ballenberg where we took a self-guided walking tour of the expansive Swiss Open Air Museum.

It may seem odd to visit an open air museum on a rainy day, but it actually worked out quite well as there were no crowds and the temperature stayed very comfortable. The key for us, just like any other day hiking at elevation in the mountains, was to dress in layers so that we could adjust as the conditions changed. In this case we wore our rain jackets and rain hats practically all day with our rain pants kept in reserve in our backpacks if the light rain showers escalated to anything mo concerning. Our waterproof GoreTex boots earned their keep yet again.

We left Brienz about 10:30 on a Postal Bus that dropped us at the entrance to the Swiss Open Air Museum just 10 minutes later. The museum, also referred to as the Ballenberg Museum, is dedicated to preserving the fabric of rural life in Switzerland. It sits on 160 mostly wooded acres and is home to over 100 historically significant structures gathered from all over the country. Many of these structures, ranging from homes to farm buildings, churches, mansions, and even factories, allow you to go inside to see the furnishings and implements that would have been there originally. Think “Colonial Williamsburg on steroids”, if only because this museum covers twice the time frame – all the way back to the 1400’s, to be exact.

The buildings within the Ballenberg Museum, some of them quite colossal in size, were all painstakingly dismantled at their original site, transported, and then re-assembled at the museum using the original materials wherever possible. The buildings are set in appropriate surroundings and clustered together by region to help show how the different styles developed over the centuries.

These regional clusters are connected by an extensive network of paved trails that are marked not unlike your typical wanderweg. Make no mistake – this is a walking museum and if you spend the day exploring the grounds you will easily log several miles on your feet. There are some less strenuous options like horse drawn carriages if that’s more your style. If all else fails you can just hang out at one of the three restaurants on the property and sample the historically-oriented cuisine …

The museum has more than 250 native farm animals roaming the grounds including hens, ducks, geese, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, oxen, horses and donkeys. The museum also cultivates traditional plants in small plots as well as larger fields surrounding the agricultural buildings. To further the experience there are also many volunteer craftsmen and farmers who illustrate period-correct tools and techniques at various locations around the museum grounds.

We had our picnic lunch in the central courtyard of the Novazzano estate in the Ticino section of the museum. A rooster that was definitely not shy decided to join us at (well actually “on”) the table for lunch. No doubt other visitors had shared bread, etc. with him in the past as he looked none the worse for wear! The Ticino region, in the southeast corner of Switzerland, is very close to the Italian border and that showed quite clearly in the architecture of this building – while eating I definitely felt closer to Rome than Zurich!

We finished our walking tour of the museum at about 2:30 PM. Rather than wait for the next Postal Bus we decided to walk the mostly level wanderweg back to Brienz. The trail started on a nice wide sidewalk along the two lane road running through Ballenberg but quickly cut off into a small area of houses before entering into an area of mostly farms and woodlands. As we approached Brienz we unfortunately returned to civilization but soon found ourselves on a very pleasant lakefront promenade that took us the rest of the way home. The signs said that the walk would take 1 Stunde (hour) but we finished it in about 45 minutes, typical for our hikes over fairly level terrain. All told we covered just over 8 miles today.

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Meals