Ballenberg Village Museum

The main reason I had for staying in Brienz was to go to the Ballenberg Village Museum, just 20 minutes by bus from the town. It'sa cool place with many old buildings from various parts of Switzerland. I love museums like this which attempt to show how people lived. This one is particularly focused on farming, as there are many farm buildings, stables, granaries and supporting trade shops here. Its also quite picturesquely situated on a steep hillside.  The various clusters of builindgs are organized by the region of Switzerland that they came from.  Its interesting to see the idfferences from building from the warmer southern valleys of Switzerland, and the cold mountain regions. Mostly the differences are kind of subtle, such as the use of different roofing material...the area of Ticino near Italy used terracotta tiles, in the Bernese alps the roofs are often made of slate and other stone.

A few pictures:
This first one is a Bernese industrialists villa, so its fairly upper class. Inside there were displays of traditional Swiss costumes and musical instruments.

Here's one of the costume exhibits

These are 18th century Bernese buildings, a farmhouse and barn:

This next one is a Vintners house from the Eastern Midlands, ca 18th century. The picture following it is the wine press this vintner might have used. That beam on the press is huge.