Bern, Switzerland

Bern is the capital of Switzerland and one of the country’s intellectual, administrative, transportation, and industrial hubs. Although the cities of Zurich and Geneva have traditionally attracted more international attention, Bern plays key roles in Swiss economic, political, and cultural affairs. As the Bundesstadt, or Federal City, it is home to the offices of the Swiss federal government as well as the national bank and postal and railway systems.

Bern is most renowned for its medieval style; rebuilt after a devastating 1405 fire, the city—originally constructed of timber logged from surrounding forests—reemerged sculpted in locally mined gray-green sandstone. It has undergone remarkably little structural change over the centuries that followed. As one of Europe’s best-preserved centers of medieval civic architecture, Bern was designated, in 1983, as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Landscape

Bern is located in central Switzerland. The city proper covers 52 square kilometers (20 square miles), about a third of which consists of public parks and woodlands. The terrain on which Bern sits is very uneven, with height variations of several meters between the lowest and highest parts of the city.

The hilly landscape around Bern was created by glaciers, as was the sprawling peninsula to which the city was originally confined. Surrounded on three sides by the Aare River, the city enjoyed natural protection from approaching enemies but had little space for development. It began expanding westward in the nineteenth century with the construction of several bridges linking the old town to the riverbank.

Bern’s historic center consists of a maze of narrow, cobbled streets that open onto a number of squares. Many of the medieval passageways are covered to protect against the rainy climate; the city contains nearly 6 kilometers (4 miles) of such arcades, providing the longest weather-protected historic shopping promenade in Europe. A common point of reference for visitors to Bern is the tower of the city’s fifteenth-century cathedral. At a dizzying height of 100 meters (328 feet), it is the tallest in Switzerland.

Bern has a typical central European climate. Average temperatures range from 4 degrees to 13 degrees Celsius (39 degrees to 55 degrees Fahrenheit) in the spring, 16 to 17 degrees Celsius (60 to 63 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, 8 degrees to 13 degrees Celsius (46 degrees to 55 degrees Fahrenheit) in the fall, and –1 degrees to 4 degrees Celsius (30 degrees to 39 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter. Switzerland has experienced several heatwaves in the early twenty-first century. A study released in 2023 attributed hundreds of deaths during a 2022 heatwave to global warming.

People

The population of Bern proper is approximately 441,000 (2023 estimate), making it the fifth most populous Swiss city after Zurich, Geneva, Basel, and Lausanne. Including residents of the city’s greater metropolitan area, that figure rises to 422,000 (2018). The majority of the capital’s inhabitants are Protestant, although the city is also home to a sizeable Catholic minority.

Although the canton of Bern contains a French-speaking area (the nearest French-speaking village lies only 12 kilometers, or 7 miles, outside of Bern), most of the capital’s residents speak German. They conduct ordinary social exchanges in Bernese German, one of many Swiss-German dialects. They use standard German, however, in writing, formal speech, and professional and school settings.

Rates of poverty and violent crime are low in Bern. Most of the city’s residents work in the government, services, or technical sectors. Despite its modest size, Bern has a decidedly international flavor. As the seat of many foreign embassies and many international organizations and corporate offices, Bern is home to a sizeable, multicultural expatriate community. International schools and clubs and foreign-language religious services and newspapers add to the diverse, urban character of the city.

Economy

Bern’s economy consists primarily of administrative, service, and tourist sectors. As home to Swiss federal government ministries as well as many international agency and corporate offices, the city boasts a large professional workforce. Bern’s strategic location in the heart of Switzerland and its superb transportation and telecommunications infrastructure also contribute to the strength of its economy.

Bern’s economy has a sizeable industrial base. Products manufactured in Bern include textiles, machinery, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The northern part of the canton of Bern is a world center for the watch- and clock-making industry. The expertise generated by this industry has found many cross-applications. The capital has become a center of research innovation in medical and information technology, the automotive and engineering industries, and the manufacture of precision instruments and nanotechnology tools.

Perhaps the product for which Bern is most famous, however, is chocolate. The Swiss chocolate industry has its origin in the capital. The first chocolate shop in Switzerland opened in Bern in 1792. Rodolphe Lindt founded his chocolate factory in Bern in 1879. Jean Tobler opened a chocolate shop in Bern in 1867 and in 1899 founded his own factory in the capital. Lindt and Tobler’s companies today represent key global players in the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry.

Landmarks

Bern’s rich architectural heritage has survived largely intact for hundreds of years. Among the cities treasures are its fifteenth-century town hall and its Gothic-style Cathedral at Münsterplatz/St. Vincent, which features three towering naves. The imposing Bundeshaus (Federal Building), constructed in 1902, which houses the Swiss parliament, is also a popular attraction. In 2004, a set of fountains was added in front of the Bundeshaus. These joined nearly a dozen notable fountains located throughout Bern, most of them dating to the Renaissance.

Bern’s most celebrated landmark, however, is the Zytglogge Zeitglockenturm, a medieval clock tower that dominates Bern’s historical center. Artisans added the clock to the eastern side of the tower—originally built in 1191 as a fortification—in 1530. Tourists still gather today to observe the elaborate mechanical figures, including a parade of bears and a dancing jester, set into motion four minutes before the clock chimes each hour.

Bern features a number of prominent museums. These include the Bern Historical Museum, a Museum of Natural History, and a Museum of Fine Arts, which features the work of some of the most important twentieth-century artists. The Paul Klee Center holds the largest collection of Paul Klee paintings in the world, around four thousand works, or nearly half of his output. The Swiss Alpine Museum offers visitors insights into unique cultural and natural aspects of the alpine world, while the Einstein Museum is located in what was once an apartment inhabited by Albert Einstein while he first developed his theory of relativity.

Natural landmarks in Bern include the Rose Garden, a former cemetery converted into a park. Located atop a hill on the outskirts of the city, the garden affords visitors a panoramic view of Bern’s medieval core. Bern’s Botanical Gardens, by contrast, are located in the heart of the city. They feature more than six thousand plant specimens growing both outdoors and within several greenhouses. Built on a wooded hillside overlooking the River Aare, Bern’s Dählhölzli Zoo—known for breeding and exhibiting delicate and endangered European species—is considered one of Europe’s finest.

Affiliated with the Dählhölzli Zoo is one of Bern’s most popular tourist attractions, its Bärengraben, or “Bear Pit.” According to one local legend, Bern’s founder, Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, killed a bear on the Aare peninsula and this led to the town being named Bern (from the German bär). To honor this legacy, an image of a bear was featured on the city’s coat of arms beginning in 1224, and the city has continuously maintained live bears in captivity since the fifteenth century.

History

Bern was founded in 1191 at the command of Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, who commissioned the nobleman Cuno von Bubenberg to construct a city on a peninsula located in a loop of the River Aare. The surrounding waters offered natural defenses, while the local oak forest provided a ready source of building material.

Bern’s clock tower formed the city’s original fortified entrance, but as the city expanded westward in the thirteenth century, a new main gate, the so-called Prison Tower, was built. A century later, the city expanded its limits a third time. They remained fixed until the 1800s, when the construction of bridges made possible Bern’s expansion beyond the old city walls to the surrounding countryside.

By the middle of fourteenth century, thanks to its aggressive subjugation of surrounding territories, Bern had established itself as Europe’s largest and most powerful city-state north of the Alps. The city’s political and economic might suffered a tremendous blow, however, in 1405, when most of the original city was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt in stone over the next two centuries.

In 1798, Bern’s regional power began to wane with the invasion and occupation of the city by French troops. But its influence in Swiss affairs was on the rise. In 1834, Bern saw the establishment of its own university, and in 1848 the newly founded Swiss Federal State chose Bern as its permanent federal city.

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