Ballenberg, Swiss Open-Air Museum
as part of the European Heritage Days 2025

13 September 2025 – during the museum opening hours

This year, the focus at Ballenberg will not be on one of the translocated museum buildings, but on a building that was already at Ballenberg before the museum was founded – a former military barracks. For one day, it will represent the barrack building type, which is usually temporary and receives little social attention, yet is nevertheless indispensable to modern society.

In cooperation with ETH Zurich and as part of the project A future for whose past?, Rune Frandsen talks about his dissertation, which focuses on the living conditions and thus also the accommodation of the thousands of workers who built the gigantic Grande Dixence hydroelectric power station in the canton of Valais in the 1950s and 1960s. The Ballenberg barrack serves as both a stage and a gallery.

Museum visitors can enjoy a coffee, tea or syrup while taking a look at the building, which now serves as a lounge for the operating team. Throughout the day, they can also use a creative tool to explore the architecture in depth and discover what feelings, associations or memories it triggers in them personally.

All information on the Museum website: here.