Cham Brickworks Museum: A museum to get to grips with

According to their name, there are many brickworks in Switzerland. However, none of them have had anything to do with the old trade of manual brickmaking for a long time; most of them are probably restaurants today - with just one exception: the brickworks in Hagendorn (Cham). Here the name still says it all. The ensemble of buildings in a clearing between the Rainmatterwald and Lindenchamerwald forests is now home to the Brickworks Museum and the only intact brickworks in German-speaking Switzerland.

And it is still in operation, although not commercially, as this would not be profitable now that bricks are produced industrially, says museum director Jeanne Simmen. But as part of the museum's operations, you can still see and, above all, experience for yourself what this old craft is all about. Both children and adults can immerse themselves in the world of an ancient cultural technique and work with clay in a workshop or on Sundays in the open workshop.

It's a bit like traveling back in time. After all, clay bricks are the oldest prefabricated building element in human history; the oldest examples are over 10,000 years old.

The charm of the fen biotope Although there are no Stone Age specimens on display at the Brickworks Museum in Hagendorn, there is still plenty of history to be found. Clay for the production of bricks has long been cut in this area, which has changed the landscape and created a valuable fen biotope that is also maintained by the museum. The collection also includes many historical pieces, which - unlike industrial bricks - are often magnificently decorated. The collection is therefore also aimed at architects and building historians. Jeanne Simmen is visibly proud as she guides the reporter through her "treasure trove". She already knows the world of handmade bricks from her time at the Ballenberg Museum, where she worked as a research assistant and head of education and outreach.

The collection of historical pieces also proves that the bricks, which were painted by hand, are durable and can withstand the ravages of time for centuries. In the museum, experts and amateurs, adults and children alike, learn how the bricks were shaped, dried and fired - the latter a complicated process that had to be closely monitored over many hours. And the modern kiln tower made of rammed earth, which is also located on the site, proves that clay is still a contemporary and ecological building material. The Hagendorn brickworks was run by the Lörch family until 1933. Today, the museum is largely funded by private patrons, primarily Alfred Müller AG, as well as the Canton of Zug and the Zug municipalities. It also runs a specialist scientific library on the subject. And a modern brickworks would not be a brickworks if it did not also cater for the physical well-being of its visitors. You can enjoy good food in the Ziegler-Beizli.