Historic excursions in Bern Region

The Diemtigtal valley is celebrated for its magnificent rural dwellings, and you can see some of the finest along the marked Diemtigtal House Trail. The details are particularly impressive: intricate carving, delicate paintings and elaborate compositions of form and colour that adorn the wooden façades underneath the massive roofs.

Since the 1970s old farmhouses, stables, bakehouses or barns are no longer demolished when they are due to be replaced by modern buildings. Instead, the buildings are dismantled stone by stone, and rebuilt in the Ballenberg Open Air Museum.

Every spring the nostalgic Gotthelf-Märit attracts thousands of visitors to the historic center of the village of Sumiswald. They revel in the authentic ambiance of a fair from yesteryear.

In the mystical Emmental, spend a night as Gotthelf once did - as if time has stood still for the past 200 years.