The building

The Althuus was built in 1703. Its impressive shingle roof makes this ridge-post structure a shining example of a hand-crafted farmhouse and the real star of this farmhouse museum. The roof rests on immense oak beams, each of which has been lovingly shaped by hand. Originally covered by rye straw, the roof shelters treasures that tell myriad stories of everyday country folk.

The Althuus opened as a farming museum in 1970 and encompasses the Spicher and a store / shed. Most of the family quarters and farm buildings have been furnished as they would have been in former times. Embedded in modern life, this “hands-on museum” speaks to today’s visitors of its 300-year-old history and of the development of the region as a whole.