Brandboden

Crafts and Trades

When the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum was opened in 1978, it was already clear that visitors should be able to personally acquaint themselves with many kinds of crafts and rural industry. These activities were concentrated in one location on the grounds of the Museum. A vale suitable to outfit for activities associated with wood, forest husbandry and fire was sought out and named “Brandboden”.

From Lime to Pitch

A lime kiln was installed, a charcoal burning area and a pitch sweating stove were set up. A shingle splitter can demonstrate his craft here too. Not only the requisite firing facilities were reconstructed, but two buildings for the craftsmen as well. All of this is in the style of the 18th and 19th centuries, just as it must have once appeared on original sites.

Shift Working without a Factory

As part of the Museum’s history and also as a basis for the ever popular demonstrations still being offered, these installations remain in service – when char burners once watched over their smouldering heaps day and night around the clock, they had a cosy shelter nearby. Nothing has changed from that day to this.