Museums
The museums in the Obwalden region display treasures, rarities, curiosities, technology, science, art and culture, history and nature. They offer fascinating insights into the past and present. The diversity of the exhibitions is inspiring and invites you to immerse yourself in the stories that have shaped the region.
Museum Obwalden
The Museum Obwalden stands for Obwalden history, art, handicrafts, folklore and customs. Finds from a Roman settlement near Alpnach, state insignia and coins, evidence of popular piety and special exhibitions await you at the Museum Obwalden.
The Obwalden Museum has its origins in the arsenal built in 1599. In 1928, the Historisch-Antiquarische Verein Obwalden opened the local history museum in the arsenal, which became the "Historisches Museum Obwalden" in 2001. This means that the museum becomes a museum for the whole canton of Obwalden. In April 2024, the "Historisches" becomes the "Museum Obwalden". The change is part of a transformation process that will culminate in a new permanent exhibition in 2026.
Contact us
Museum Obwalden
Brünigstrasse 127
6060 Sarnen
Tel.: +41 41 660 65 22
E-mail: mail@museum-obwalden.ch
Web: www.museum-obwalden.ch
Brother Klaus Museum
The museum is dedicated to Niklaus von Flüe (1417-1487), the Swiss national saint Brother Klaus, and is located in the stately town house from 1784 on the Sachsler village square.
"Niklaus von Flüe - mediator between worlds". The basic exhibition presents the mystic, politician and popular saint, peacemaker, mediator and admonisher. Valuable original objects, moving and static images, information and statements via audio stations and impressive spatial situations illustrate this influential figure from the late Middle Ages and the history of his impact to this day.
Contact us
Museum Bruder Klaus
Dorfplatz 4
6072 Sachseln
Tel.: +41 41 660 55 83
E-mail: info@museumbruderklaus.ch
Web: www.museumburderklaus.ch
Christian Sigrist Collection
The creator of the wonderful and detailed wooden miniatures is called Christian Sigrist and lived in Sachseln. "Sagä Chrischti", as he was known, ran the legendary Älggi Post in Obwalden from 1934 to 1971. During the waiting times, he began to carve miniature versions of the equipment and tools of alpine life. This laid the foundation for today's miniature collection.
He used the workplaces of agricultural professions and old trades that he had seen disappear as models. These miniatures are wood-carved records and chronicles of a world that was closed in on itself. The interconnectedness of crafts and agriculture in the village structure of the first half of the 20th century becomes clear. As "staged narratives", the miniatures also encourage reflection on the rapid global development of our time.
What in detail provides precise information about crafts and activities that are dying out or have even disappeared, provides an overview of rural social structures in which one cannot do without the other.
Contact us
c/o Museum Bruder Klaus
Christian Sigrist Collection
6072 Sachseln
Tel.: +41 41 660 55 83
Web: www.sammlung-sigrist.ch
Meinrad Burch-Korrodi Collection
In the multivision show and with attractively staged objects from the Meinrad Burch-Korrodi Collection in Sarnen, the career and works of the most important Swiss goldsmith of the 20th century are brought back to life.
The Obwalden goldsmith and entrepreneur Meinrad Burch-Korrodi (1897 - 1978) made a name for himself internationally as a consistent innovator in sacred art and successfully participated in national and international exhibitions. He consistently used the strict formal language of the Bauhaus and thus broke with the baroque concept of how jewelry and sacred objects should look in the early 20th century.
In order to make the gold and silversmith's work from the Zurich studio accessible to the public, a room in the basement of the Department of Education and Culture was turned into a "treasure chamber" in 2007.
The exhibition can only be visited by appointment. For group visits, please make an appointment with the Department of Education and Culture.
Contact us
Meinrad Burch-Korrodi Collection
Department of Education and Culture
Brünigstrasse 178
6061 Sarnen
Tel.: +41 41 666 62 43
Web: www.burch-korrodi.ch