Introduction to Berne, BE

Of all Swiss cities, BERN is the most immediately charming. Crammed onto a steep-sided peninsula in a crook of the fast-flowing River Aare, the city's quiet, cobbled lanes, lined with sandstone arcaded buildings, have changed little in over five hundred years. The hills all around, and the steep banks of the river, are still liberally wooded. It's sometimes hard to remember that this quiet, attractive town of just 130,000 people is the nation's capital. Bern's old centre is best explored from the focal east–west Spitalgasse. As it leads away from the train station, Spitalgasse becomes Marktgasse, Kramgasse, and then Gerechtigkeitsgasse, but all the way down is lined with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses, fountains and arcaded shops. Some 200m east of the station, the street crosses Bärenplatz, scene of much outdoor daytime drinking and a lively Saturday-morning market; to the right of it is the domed Bundeshaus or Federal Parliament Building. Beyond Bärenplatz, Marktgasse continues under the Käfigturm (prisoners' tower), a thirteenth-century town gate. Further along is an eleventh-century gate that was converted in the sixteenth century into the Zytglogge – a distinctively top-heavy clocktower adorned with brightly coloured figures that judder into movement four minutes before each hour. (To the left, in Kornhausplatz, is the most famous of Bern's many ornate fountains, the horrific Kindlifresserbrunnen, depicting an ogre devouring a struggling baby.) Münstergasse, one block south, leads to the fifteenth-century Gothic Münster (Tues–Sat 10am–4/5pm, Sun 11.30am–2/5pm), noted for the magnificently gilded high-relief Last Judgement above the main entrance and the elegant buttressed terrace on its south side. Its 254-stepped tower (closes 30min earlier; Fr.4), the tallest in Switzerland, offers terrific views of the city and distant mountains. At the eastern end of the centre, the Nydeggbrücke crosses the river to the Bärengraben (daily 8/9am–4/6pm), Bern's famed bear-pits, which have housed generations of morose shaggies since the early sixteenth century. Legend has it that the town's founder Berchtold V of Zähringen named Bern after killing one of the beasts during a hunt; the bear has remained a symbol of the town ever since. Bern's Kunstmuseum, near the station at Hodlerstrasse 8–12 (Tues 10am–9pm, Wed–Sun 10am–5pm; Fr.7), is especially strong on twentieth-century art, with works by Matisse, Kandinsky, Braque and Picasso, and whole rooms devoted to Paul Klee, who was born in Bern and who returned here from Germany after the rise of Nazism. More museums are grouped around Helvetiaplatz, south of the river: the Alpine Museum (Mon 2–5pm, Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; Fr.7) houses interesting displays exploring mountain culture, and you could spend hours in the fascinating seven-floored Historisches Museum (Tues–Sun 10am–5pm, Wed until 8pm; Fr.8); check out the "Dance of Death" sequence in the basement, and the fine late-medieval Flemish tapestries and weaponry.

Information by Rough Guides

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