Musée romand de l’agriculture

About the museum

The Chiblins mill is a place with a very long history: its first stones are said to date from 970, in the 12th century it belonged to the lords of Gingins, and in 1536, after the conquest of Vaud, it passed to the Bonmont estate under the Bernese bailiffs. After a major fire in 1862, a new custom mill was built five years later. In 1903 it was bought by an agricultural cooperative, which operated it for almost 70 years before it passed to the Federation of Vaud Agricultural Societies in 1971. After nearly 20 years, operations ceased.

In 1990 the foundation of the Musée romand de la machine agricole acquired the mill. This museum had been founded ten years earlier in Vernier; its collection goes back at its core to Victor Bertschi, a workshop manager and demonstrator at a large agricultural machinery business, who rescued old working equipment from the scrapyard. Just a year later the collection was housed in Chiblins, and the mill has been on the Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance since 1995; after major conversions it became a permanent museum in 1997.

Today the museum shows, on four levels, tractors, agricultural machinery, horse-drawn vehicles, viticulture and forestry equipment, a saddlery, a forge, a dairy, a butcher's shop and a kitchen. The old 20th-century mill equipment has been completely preserved.

Highlights

• Collection of around 2,000 agricultural machines and implements
• 15 exhibition rooms on four floors in the historic mill
• Tractors from 1923 to 1960 on the ground floor
• Completely preserved mill equipment, roller mills still in working order
• Horse-drawn vehicles, viticulture and forestry equipment, forge and kitchen

Permanent exhibitions

• Traktoren (1923–1960) – On the ground floor, the row of tractors from the years 1923 to 1960 shows how quickly the machine replaced the horse as a source of traction.
• Mühleneinrichtung – A millstone grinding set and the roller mills, which ran until 1986 and are still in working order, document the milling operation of the 20th century.
• Gespannfahrzeuge und landwirtschaftliche Geräte – Wagons, sleighs and carriages as well as equipment for arable farming, haymaking, sowing, potatoes, viticulture and forestry show the mechanisation of agriculture.

Founded

1980

Operated by

Fondation du Musée Romand de l’Agriculture

Admission & discounts

Tickets are also available online.

Accessibility

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Kids & families

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Getting there & parking

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Amenities & dining

• Café

Refreshment bar (buvette) on site.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent
• Private parties
• Corporate events
• Weddings / ceremonies

Up to 400 guests.

Four rooms: La Taverne (100 seats), La Terrasse, Le Carnotzet and La Buvette; 35 to 400 people in total. With catering service.

Plan your visit